Premier League Darts Night 16 Sheffield Tips: Aspinall to make The 02 for the first time

• Humphries available at boosted price of 11/43.75 to win the Premier League

• Nathan Aspinall to seal spot at The 02

• Humphries and Cross to again bring out the best in each other

Reigning Premier League champion Luke Littler was the first to book his passage through to finals night and having already amassed the same number of points as he did last season, he's now 5/61.84 to go on and successfully retain his title.

World number one and runner-up to The Nuke 12 months ago Luke Humphries is available at the boosted price of 11/43.75 to go one further and win this tournament for the first time in his career whilst 2023 finalist Gerwyn Price, set to make just his second appearance at The 02, is 5/16.00 to take the title.

The Nuke to head to London in fine form

Last week, Stephen Bunting capitalised on a below par display from a Gerwyn Price who went through the motions somewhat in Aberdeen, in order to pick up a rare Premier League victory.

Whilst he's known for some time that Sheffield would be the end of the road for him in this, his first Premier League campaign for a decade, it'll be tough for him to sign off in style as he faces the daunting prospect of taking on a man who continues to make this game look ridiculously easy, the only man in the field with a running average in excess of a ton, the league leader and defending champion, Luke Littler.

The Nuke has won three of their four matches in this year's Premier League and I'm backing him to come out on top in this one and hit five or more 180s at 2/13.00.

Asp to make The 02 for the first time

For a second successive week, all eyes are fixed on Nathan Aspinall against Michael van Gerwen. Last week, I tipped The Asp to win this fixture and then go on to take the nightly title and in doing so, he's put himself in a glorious position to make it to The 02 for the first time in his career.

If Michael van Gerwen, the man who has won this tournament more times than anyone in the history of the tournament, is to pip him at the post, he needs to do something he's failed to do all season and go on and win the night.

It seems absurd, absolutely ludicrous that we've made it to this stage and MvG still hasn't managed to win a night, especially as we had become accustomed in previous years, to seeing him do his business early on in a campaign.

Even when not always at his blistering best, he seemed to find exactly what was required in this event more than others, to ensure he was in with a chance on finals night, with the one previous time he missed out coming in an already strange campaign due to covid.

Whilst I'm leaning towards MvG winning this match but ultimately The Asp qualifying for finals night, I'm going to stay away from the outright market in this one.

At 5/61.84 I'm backing the Stockport man to hit the most 180s in this one. He's hit 20 more than his Dutch opponent in this campaign and double the amount when the pair went head-to-head last week.

I also think that whilst both players may opt to use the 19s at times, I think MvG is the more likely to deviate away from the 20 segment.

Voltage and Cool Hand to deliver high quality contest

For the fourth time in this campaign, Rob Cross and Luke Humphries go up against each other in the Premier League and I expect that, even with nothing much on the line for either player, this match will follow the pattern of their previous and be a high quality affair.

Across their last four meetings, only once has the winning average been below a ton, they so often produce and bring out the best in each other and with the third highest running average in this tournament, I'm backing Rob Cross to average +96.5 in this one at 5/61.84.

Dobey could finish fifth

Whilst Gerwyn Price has already secured his spot at finals night for just the second time in his career, for hhis opponent Chris Dobey, with only The Bullet suffering more quarter-final defeats than him, it's been a largely frustrating campaign with missed darts at double often his achilles heel.

With that said, both in Aberdeen and Rotterdam, that aspect of his game was particularly strong, leading to questions of what might have been possible had that level of finishing been prevalent more frequently.

By the time he takes to the stage to take on The Iceman, he'll know whether it's still possible to elevate his final league position to fifth, he needs to see MvG defeated in his game against Aspinall for that to still be possible.

If that is attainable for Hollywood, I'd fancy him for this one at 6/52.20.