Darts

Premier League Darts Night 7 Cardiff Tips: Back Bunting at 11/4 to bag first points

Stephen Bunting playing darts
Stephen Bunting heads to Cardiff hoping to secure his first Premier League win

Six nights in, the Premier League is starting to take shape with Gerwyn Price joining Luke Littler and Luke Humphries on two nightly wins. Abigail Davies has the best bets for this week's round...

  • Price now third favourite to win the Premier League

  • This another good opportunity for Bunting to get off the mark

  • Luke Littler to finish like he did last week


While pre-tournament favourites Luke Humphries and Luke Littler continue to lead the way at the top of the Premier League table, Gerwyn Price is certainly showing that he can't be discounted this season.

With a new mindset that looks to be here to stay as well as a positive head-to-head record against both of the Lukes, The Iceman is now 6/17.00  to win this event for the first time, in May.

Backing Bunting to get off the mark

A hugely intriguing contest to kick off Thursday night sees the two players at the wrong end of the table collide. After a cracking start to the campaign for Chris Dobey, with a run to the final in Belfast, he has since failed to pick up any points despite producing some impressive performances and having a number of opportunities to do so.

For Stephen Bunting, it was an all too familiar story in Nottingham. Another ton plus average posted but again it was a first round elimination. The Bullet will undoubtedly be feeling the heat now and his ambitions for this campaign will have been altered enormously.

Before a dart was thrown, he hoped to be duking it out with Littler and Humphries at the top of the table. That's not going to happen now, a steady trickling of points isn't enough, and he has one heck of a battle on his hands if he is to fight his way up the table.

Only Littler, Humphries and Rob Cross have a higher running average in this event than Bunting and at 11/43.75 I like the look of the 2024 Masters champion winning his first match of this year's campaign and hitting the most 180s.


Humphries makes everything look effortless

It is usually a foregone conclusion that Michael van Gerwen will make finals night of this tournament. It's what he does. A seven time champion, he has only once finished a league phase outside of the cut off. But he is currently clinging onto fourth place in the table and there is undoubtedly work to do for The Green Machine who was again left frustrated by a semi-final exit in Nottingham.

Winning nights, being the standout player and putting down markers is what MvG is about and as of yet, he's not really done that, consistently, over the course of a Premier League night. Against Luke Humphries, who has triumphed in nine of his 10 meetings with Van Gerwen, this one could well be the quarter-final tie of the night.


Littler to put in another large performance

When asked about whether he felt he was ahead of schedule, having only returned to darts in September following surgery, Nathan Aspinall last week told me that he actually thought he'd be further along in his recovery by now. He expected to be delivering consistent performances before now but despite that, and the fact that he averaged below 90 against MvG last week, it does feel like Aspinall is turning a corner.

However, it is hard to see past a Luke Littler win in this one, especially if he plays at the level he showed last week. Despite losing out in the final, he didn't average below a ton all night and he'll have too much for The Asp, as he has done on 10 of the 11 occasions they've previously met.

Bull finishes were hit for fun in Robin Hood Country, The Nuke hitting some really big outs at key moments and at 1/21.50, I'm backing a leg to be won on the bullseye in this contest.


Iceman to add to his tally

Gerwyn Price has plenty of reasons to smile and think that this could be his best Premier League campaign yet. Yes, he topped the table and reached the final in 2023 but given the way he's playing, the way he's responding to setbacks and the manor of his triumphs, this campaign could supersede his previous best.

gezzy price pl darts.jpg

Last year, Price didn't pick up a nightly win, he already has two to his name this time around and, despite saying that he gets more nervous for the one Welsh evening of Premier League each year than any other event, I think he'll succeed in putting on a show.

He's had some belting matches with Rob Cross and, while I think The Iceman may come out on top in this one, it's Voltage's average that I'm keen to back as the line is quite tempting. At 5/61.84 I like the look of the Englishman averaging +96.5.


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