World Champion Michael Smith looks to solidify his spot in the Premier League play-offs in Liverpool tomorrow (March 9) as he clashes with Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh.
The St Helens man sits second in the table behind reigning champion Michael van Gerwen.
Smith lost at the quarter final stage last week after a 6-3 defeat to Nathan Aspinall.
“The Bully Boy” has clashed with van den Bergh once in the Premier League so far.
Smith defeated “The DreamMaker” 6-4 in the final of night three to win his only night.
Van den Bergh sits in fifth place in the table, one point outside the play-offs.
He defeated week one champion Chris Dobey last week before being comfortably beaten 6-2 by Jonny Clayton in the semi-final.
Van den Bergh will be buoyed by a semi-final run at last weekend’s UK Open.
He won four games including a nail-biting victory over former champion Gary Anderson before losing to van Gerwen 11-6.
Smith will be disappointed with his tournament.
He eased past his former mentor Ian White 10-4 in the last 64 but fell short in the next round to Luke Humphries in a last leg decider.
The winner of this tie will face either Chris Dobey or Nathan Aspinall.
Dobey had a dream debut to the Premier League, beating van Gerwen in the final to win week one.
Since then, “Hollywood” has yet to pick up any more points and sits seventh in the table.
Aspinall historically does well in the Premier League and this season is no different.
“The Asp” will be disappointed to not win a night so far but his consistency places him third in the table.
The pair have met once this year, a 6-4 victory for Dobey in night one.
LEAGUE TABLE 🔢
Michael van Gerwen extends his lead at the top of the table after his second victory in five nights…
Meanwhile, the woes continue for Peter Wright at the foot of the table! pic.twitter.com/CTJzy62eTh
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 2, 2023
In the other half of the draw, rock bottom Peter Wright opens the night against Gerwyn Price.
Wright has failed to win any of his opening five games in this year’s Premier League.
He is eight points behind Price who occupies the final play-off spot.
Price is looking to make the play-offs for the first time.
The pair have yet to face each other in the league this year but they did meet in the final of the Nordic Darts Masters earlier this year.
“Snakebite” took the trophy with a convincing 11-5 victory.
In the remaining quarter-final, “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen clashes with nemesis Jonny Clayton.
“The Ferret” has a better record than most against MVG but has lost their two encounters in this year.
“The Green Machine” beat the Welshman 6-3 in last week’s final and sits first in the table.
His 15 point tally cannot be overtaken this week.
Van Gerwen suffered disappointment in the final of the UK Open.
Andrew Gilding pulled off a huge upset when he won a last leg decider against the Dutchman to lift the trophy.
You can watch the PDC Premier League Thursday, March 9th at 7pm on Sky Sports Action.
(Featured pic with permission from Taylor Lanning/PDC)
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