Merseyside’s Michael Smith will hope to get his first points on the board after a slow start as the Premier League of Darts returns on Thursday at Belfast’s SSE arena.
The world number five opens the show with a tough opponent in world number one Gerwyn Price as he looks to bounce back.
Both players haven’t had the start they were hoping for and will look to kick off their campaign in Belfast.
After reaching the Premier League final in 2018, Smith aims to go one better this time around.
Following his defeat to Jonny Clayton, he said: “It’s a slow start, we still got 14 weeks left, I feel I can kick on.”
He also has confidence and belief that he can achieve his goals.
“I’m still confident I can win every match I play or every leg I play, and if you’re not confident no one else believes in what you’re doing.”
Despite this Smith knows that every opponent is a tough challenge and compares it to football when he says “it’s not Manchester City vs Colchester United – it’s not an unmatched game, we are all there to battle”.
With the new tournament format being introduced it gives the players a chance to climb the table at a faster rate.
There will be one overall winner each week who will gain five points plus a whopping £10,000. The runner up gets three points and semi finalists both get two.
Thursday’s fixtures sees last week’s runner up Joe Cullen face Michael Van Gerwen, and two Scotsmen Gary Anderson and Peter Wright face off.
Rounding off will be Clayton against “The Machine” James Wade.
Coming into this week’s matches, Clayton is in the lead by three points and he looks to extend that closely followed by Wright and Cullen.
Four players are level on two points and bottom of the league is Smith.
(Featured image courtesy of Taylor Lanning/PDC)
