Premier League Darts Night 5 Brighton Tips: Price and MvG to produce a belter in Brighton

• Littler's 180 hitting is unrelenting

• Rob Cross's positive record against Humphries can't be ignored

• Can Bunting end his winless run in Brighton?

• Completely Free Bet available every day this Cheltenham Festival on any racing multi

Having triumphed on his debut in this competition in 2024, Luke Littler experienced even more major glory at the weekend, lifting the UK Open trophy in one of the most exquisite campaigns you are ever likely to see in the competition, he is now 6/52.20 to make it back-to-back Premier League victories in May, with current table topper Luke Humphries available at 15/82.88.

Michael van Gerwen has won this event more times than anyone else and is 7/18.00 to add a record extending eighth title.

As for Gerwyn Price, he came into this year's campaign with a positive mindset and a delightfully upbeat demeanour. He's only qualified for finals night once before but is now 8/131.61 to do so again.

Price and MvG to produce brilliance

For the first time this year, Michael van Gerwen suffered a quarter-final exit following a below par performance against Rob Cross in Exeter. Despite there being positives to take from the way he's playing in patches, he's still struggling enormously for consistency and clearly still has vulnerabilities on the outer ring at times.

Just as you start to think that The Green Machine is on the verge of doing something special and a string of results in a tournament must be around the corner, his level dips.

Astonishingly, MvG has not won back-to-back games in an event since the World Championship, thus further highlighting the drop-off after his first game.

Of his last 10 meetings with Gerwyn Price, only once has the winning average been below a ton and despite both players underperforming in Devon, I'm expecting them to bring out the best in each other this week, in their first clash of 2025.

Littler's power scoring is sensational

Luke Littler heads to Brighton off the back of one of the greatest UK Open triumphs you are ever likely to see. The standard he produced and the way he dealt with the quality coming back at him was exceptional, taking everything in his stride as he so often does and trusting that he had the level to overpower everyone in his path.

Littler has suffocated many an opponent of late with his sensational power scoring, he hit a whopping 20 180s across his three matches last week, more than Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting, MvG and Gerwyn Price have hit over the opening four weeks of the Premier League and at 11/102.11, I like the look of +7.5 180s in this one.

Cool Hand continues to produce the quality

Luke Humphries is sitting very pretty at the top of the table after four weeks of action. Despite him insisting that he's a way off the level he produced in the league phase of the 2024 campaign, he has a running average just shy of a ton, with 47% checkout success.

His timing in Exeter was the standout feature of his game. When he found himself in tricky spots, he was able to produce spells of brilliance, seemingly effortlessly, to advance.

One of those bursts actually came against Rob Cross, his opponent in Brighton, where Cool Hand won three of the last four legs, each in 12 darts, with finishes of 121, 167 and 116.

However, across their last seven meetings, Voltage has come out on top in five of them and even when he was on the losing side last week, he pushed the world number one all the way. I think it's worth looking at the handicap market here and backing Cross +1.5 legs at 5/42.25.

I also think the checkout line is quite low for this one and am backing a high checkout of over 113.5 at 5/61.84

Bullet to end winless streak in Brighton

Stephen Bunting hasn't done a great deal wrong in the Premier League but still finds himself searching for his first couple of points of this year's campaign, his first in a decade

Whilst averages aren't everything in this game, they can be used as an indicator and four players have a lower running average than The Bullet. This is a hugely important week for him, he needs to start picking up points and despite Nathan Aspinall's pleasingly impressive form at the start of 2025, I think this could be where The Bullet picks up his first couple of points.

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