While the wins have dried up somewhat for Luke Littler over the last few weeks, the same can’t be said for his 180 scoring. The teenage sensation continues to fill up the treble 20 bed with ease, crashing in six maximums when losing to Michael van Gerwen last Thursday. That latest batch of 180s has taken Littler’s overall return in this year’s Premier League to a remarkable 128. As for Stephen Bunting, he currently sits second bottom of the 180 leaderboard on 49, managing just one maximum when coming up short against Rob Cross last Thursday.

As such, backing Littler to outmax ‘The Bullet’ in Birmingham on Thursday looks an obvious angle of attack. The two players have already shared the Premier League stage on three separate occasions this season, with Littler comfortably winning the 180 battle in each of those three contests, and everything points towards their latest showdown following the same trend.

The Birmingham crowd could be treated to a barrage of 180s when Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey do battle on Thursday night. Both players are averaging north of three maximums per game in this season’s Premier League. In fact, only Luke Littler (128) and Luke Humphries (69) have fired in more 180s than Aspinall (68) and Dobey (58) across the opening 12 nights of the season.

With that in mind, a minimum of seven 180s looks well within range when Aspinall and Dobey go up against each other this week. The two arrowsmiths last met in the Premier League as recently as Night 11 in Rotterdam, with both players combining to deliver no fewer than 10 maximums during that contest.

It’s also worth noting that the duo’s only other encounter in this season’s Premier League back on Night 4 in Exeter featured nine maximums. On top of all that, two of Aspinall and Dobey’s three showdowns during the 2023 Premier League also produced seven or more 180s.

Michael van Gerwen merits support to hit the most 180s during his clash with Rob Cross on Thursday night. ‘The Green Machine’ has been more solid than spectacular on the 180 front in this season’s Premier League, averaging a more than respectable 2.80 maximums per game thus far.

That being said, that average would almost certainly have been slightly higher had van Gerwen not been forced to withdraw from Night 9 in Berlin with a shoulder injury.  Moreover, MVG has come out on top on the 180 count in four of his last six Premier League matches, including last week’s semi-final defeat to Luke Humphries.

In contrast, Rob Cross has hit the fewest 180s of the eight-man field in this season’s Premier League to date, landing a combined total of 45 maximums thus far. What’s more, Cross failed to register a 180 across each of his two outings in Liverpool last week, further highlighting his tendency to struggle when it comes to filling up the 180 bed.