Premier League Darts Night 9 Berlin Tips: Price to pick up points

• Humphries and Cross to bring out best in each other

• Littler to pick up where he left off in Newcastle

• The Iceman to build on Pro Tour positives

Asp still has top four ambitions

For Stephen Bunting, this Premier League campaign has been fairly demoralising. If you look at the numbers he's produced more often than not across his quarter-final matches, you'd be quite confident that on another day, he'd surely have amassed some points.

With a checkout percentage that is now tumbling and currently below 30, it's becoming more and more apparent that, understandably, the pressure is getting to The Bullet and he's thinking a heck of a lot about the situation he finds himself in, when up on the oche.

However, heading to Germany, the 2024 Masters champion can take confidence from his run to the quarter-final of Players Championship 10 on Tuesday where he produced four consecutive ton plus averages, including a whopping 111 to beat the reigning Grand Prix champion Mike de Decker, before being defeated by Michael Smith.

The Bullet has won three of his last four against Nathan Aspinall but the Stockport man did average in excess of 106 in defeating Bunting in Brighton on night five.

The Asp is currently two points off the top four and could very well bolster his chances of making The O2 on Thursday night.

Cool Hand and Cross to produce high quality encounter

Luke Humphries strengthened his position in second last week whilst also losing ground on the reigning champion Luke Littler, in top spot.

Cool Hand looked a little jaded by the time the final rolled around in Newcastle but having not competed in the Pro Tour events earlier this week, has given himself the best chance of feeling fresh in Germany.

More often than not, he and Rob Cross bring out the best in each other. The winning average in five of their last six matches have been in excess of a ton but I'm not tempted by the lines set for averages in this one. Instead, I'm backing Humphries to hit the most 180s and win at 6/42.50.

Littler could end campaign with 200 180s

Luke Littler continues to soar to new heights in this year's Premier League. He's already equalled the record for number of nightly wins in a campaign (four) and broken the ton mark when it comes to 180s hit, and we're only halfway through the league phase.

His frightening scoring power and ability to coast to victory even when not at his blistering best were both evident in the Toon as he dropped just four legs across his three matches.

Chris Dobey will be out for a bit of revenge in this fixture and despite being defeated by Littler the last time they met on a Premier League stage, will know that he should have won that match and certainly carved out enough chances to do so.

On the whole, Littler's scoring and finishing has been far superior, he's hit a whopping 66 more 180s than Hollywood and I expect him to dominate that metric again but I also think Hollywood will put in an improved performance from his recent displays in this tournament and back him to average +95.5 at 5/61.84.

Price puts injury concerns behind him

By his own admission, Gerwyn Price was left pretty annoyed and frustrated after night eight of the Premier League, in addition to feeling a little concerned about an injury to his arm.

Having been unable to play in an exhibition the following night, The Iceman received the necessary treatment and there was immediate proof that it worked as he romped to victory at Players Championship nine on Monday.

Price was quick to highlight that his performances had been quite inconsistent en route to the title but he was simply spellbinding in the semi-final where he averaged in excess of 114.

The 2021 World Champion spoke of the confidence the win would give him heading to Berlin where he takes on Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-final.

They've played twice in this year's Premier League and it's one win apiece but their most recent encounter came on the European Tour where Gerwyn Price raced into a 4-1 lead but went on to lose with a 107 average.

Price will be out for revenge and despite a handful of underwhelming displays on this darting roadshow over recent weeks, given the way the Welshman performed in Leicester earlier this week, I think there's value in backing him to come out on top in this one at [EVS].

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