Littler has been imperious form these past few weeks. In his last eleven matches he’s averaged 100+ in ten of them. Eight of these were higher than this mark of 103.50 so the fact this is available at the odds is quite surprising. It just seems to be the norm for him right now.

The odds to win the match suggest this could be a little one sided and the matches that he’s played in the aforementioned eleven which have a produced a wide margin scoreline, he’s averaged way higher. These include match averages of 110, 116, 110, 112, 107 and 105.

Trying to eek every little value there is out of this match is difficult, but this could be an angle to consider. Lukeman himself has admitted he’s a bit of a slow starter and he can ill afford that here. You just don’t see him mounting a comeback if he falls behind emphatically early on.

During this event ‘The Nuke’ has led at this stage of matches in three of the six and has only trailed once and that was against Gary Anderson. ‘Smash’ has trailed in three of his six matches including both his last two knockout games.

Looking at the bigger picture and the seasonal stats. Littler has manged to lead in 42% of his matches at that stage and you have to remember that includes the Premier League where he’s faced the best of the best.

Lukeman on the other hand is a little lower at 39% but he wouldn’t have faced the calibre of opponent Littler has on the whole.

Four of the last five Grand Slam of Darts Finals have been routine successes for the eventual champion. Gerwyn Price beat Peter Wright 16-6 and 16-8 in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Michael Smith trounced Nathan Aspinall 16-5 in 2022 and Luke Humphries defeated Rob Cross 16-8 last year.

The match odds suggest that could be the case again this year and take Luke Littler to produce another landslide success in the final here. He walloped Jermaine Wattimena 16-2 in the Quarter-Final and whilst you can’t envisage a wide-margin success of that magnitude, you have to remember that he was actually in good form prior to that match with Littler.

‘The Nuke’ is also an extraordinary darts player so anything he does, is no surprise. Expect him to try and rubber stamp this tournament with a perfect conclusion.

This is arguably a bit of a wild card in terms of ‘best bets’ for this final but you would imagine that if Lukeman is going to cause a huge upset or at least hang on to the coattails of Littler then some clutch finishing may be required.

‘Smash’ has actually registered the highest checkout in every game he’s played in this event so far and that run extends to his last eight matches if you go back to the qualifiers too. He also has a good record in this aspect over the course of the season where he’s had the higher checkout in 55% of the matches he’s played.

Littler on the other hand has only managed to have the highest checkout in three of his six matches in this years Grand Slam of Darts, which is a bit surprising given how one-sided some of his successes have been.