Premier League Darts – Finals night at the 02

Michael Van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson head to the O2 on Thursday night with one destined to be crowned the 2017 Premier League Darts champion.

Since launching in 2005, the Darts Premier League has been one of the biggest events in the game. The format means only the best reach the final stages and only five men have ever claimed the title. Three of those have a chance to win the title on Thursday while Peter Wright is looking to win the Premier League for the first time.

Despite not winning the title before, Wright is the man in form. He claimed his maiden major TV title, the UK Open earlier this year and he hasn’t looked back.

His form in the second half of this Premier League season has been near perfect and he rounded off his league campaign last week by crushing Raymond Van Barneveld. However, if Snakebite is to win his second major of the year he will need to maintain the standards he has set in recent months.

In his way in the semi-final is Phil Taylor in his final night of Premier League Darts. After announcing his retirement this years competition will be his last and he would love to end his story with a fairytale win. He has won the title more times then anyone else, with six victories from the 12 previous competitions. It is five years since he last won the title, but he has been runner-up twice since including last year.

In recent weeks he has been brilliant with his victory two weeks ago against Michael Van Gerwen being the highlight. While the level of his performances have changed from week-to-week he has shown  that he can still compete with the best having beaten all the other three semi-finalists in this years competition.

The other semi-final sees a repeat of last week and this years world championship final as Van Gerwen takes on Gary Anderson. Last week it was Van Gerwen who came out on top to secure top spot in the league table.

Both of them have previously won the title twice before, with Van Gerwen looking to become only the second person to defend the Premier League title.

Despite winning last week Van Gerwen has struggled over the past months or at least by his standards. He remains the clear favourite with the bookies at 1/2(Bet365) and if he plays at his best he will lift yet another trophy in London.

Anderson has proved over the last few years that he can turn up on the big stage and has put any problems he previously had on doubles well and truly behind him. Last week the game was more important to Van Gerwen then himself, but with a place in the final at stake the Scot is bound to step up his game.

Predictions

You could put a case for any of the four winning the title on Thursday.  However, for me in current form Wright will prove too strong for Taylor.

In the other semi-final I believe it is 50/50. Even though he has struggled in recent weeks Van Gerwen will be fully motivated to win and sit atop the darting world once again.

If it does come down to a Wright v Van Gerwen final, I fancy Wright to lift the title. He has one over on him at the moment and he is showing an air of confidence of that we have only seen before from Taylor and Van Gerwen.

The Premier League Darts 2017 Finals night is live on Sky Sports 3 on Thursday 7pm