The 2023 Premier League Darts continues this week, with the usual darting drama guaranteed!

2023 Premier League Darts – Night 2 – Cardiff

We didn’t have to wait long after a pulsating World Darts Championship Final just one month ago, the darting calendar continues here with the weekly format of the Premier League! We are still in the early stages, this is just the second night of the PL as part of a total of 17 matchdays, but there is no better time than the present to pick up as much form as possible at the beginning in order to get your name in the Play-Offs in London at the end of May.

Every matchday will contain quarterfinals, semi-finals, and a final, and each player will be ranked in a leader board after every matchday dependent on their overall performance. So far, top of the table is World #21 Chris Dobey, defeating World #3 Michael van Gerwen in the Night 1 Final in Belfast. Hollywood is appearing in his first ever Premier League season after an impressive quarterfinal finish in the 2023 World Championship (coincidentally, eliminated then by van Gerwen), and he’s already proving why he should be higher in the world rankings. It’s another tough test for him this week, starting with World #4 Gerwyn Price, but the Welshman hasn’t exactly been his usual dominant self in recent months. The Iceman, once ranked World #1, only earned one major honour in the year of 2022 and 2023 has got off to a frustrating start so far: runner-up in both the Bahrain and Nordic Masters, Price fell short of expectations in the World Championship last month by being eliminated at the quarterfinal stage (like Dobey), but against German Gabriel Clemens. He’s without a win in this year’s Premier League, will he find his first here?

What about the current World Champion, Michael Smith? Bully Boy suffered for so many years without a major honour to his name and all of a sudden, in the space of two months, he has two titles: the Grand Slam of Darts, and the World Championship. Smith defeated van Gerwen last month in the World Championship Final to become #1 in the world rankings, but they met again on the oche on Night 1 of the 2023 Premier League with the Dutchman taking immediate revenge, winning 6-3. It means Smith has yet to find victory in this PL campaign, but he has every chance here against Jonny Clayton in Cardiff’s quarterfinal round. The 2021 season was a fantastic year for Jonny Clayton but that must feel like a long time ago now: The Ferret earned 4 majors that year, including becoming Premier League Champion and World Grand Prix Champion, but he has failed to win a major tournament since, most recently falling at the quarterfinal stage of the 2023 World Championship. He, like Michael Smith, lost his opening match last week in Belfast, so this is a great chance for either player to redeem themselves here in Cardiff!

We’ve mentioned that some players will have been frustrated at their performances in the 2023 World Championship, but what about Nathan Aspinall and Peter Wright. Both players, ranked #10 and #2 respectively in the world, both fell to elimination in the Third Round (3 stages away from the Final), falling heavily short of expectations. The Premier League should serve as an immediate chance of redemption for both players, particularly Peter Wright, who hasn’t managed to earn any major honours since winning the 2022 World Championship. Regardless, Snakebite keeps his ranking as #2 in the world and will want his first victory of the Premier League season to come here, against Aspinall (Wright lost last week against Chris Dobey). Nathan Aspinall is a bit of an underdog, mainly due to the fact he has only 1 major honour to his name (in comparison, Wright has 7), but he has proven on numerous occasions that he can perform against the biggest players. Perhaps that was his issue in the World Championship, his Third Round elimination was against an unseeded outsider, Chris Rock. Against the second-best player in the World here, perhaps there is no pressure on The Asp. He reached the semi-final last week (before, like Wright, being eliminated by Chris Dobey), but he would love to go one step further this week and reach the final.

The only two non-British players in this year’s Premier League will face each other this week, just as they did last week in Belfast. That encounter between Dimitri Van den Bergh (ranked #11) and Michael van Gerwen (ranked #3), came at the semi-final stage with MvG winning there. At the moment, it seems like these two players can’t stop facing each other, because they also battled in the World Championship just last month, in the semi-final too, again with van Gerwen coming out on top. Can Van den Bergh take revenge here, in Cardiff’s Premier League quarterfinal? The DreamMaker, like Aspinall, comes into this as an outsider and can only boast 1 major honour to his name (2020 World Matchplay), but that semi-final appearance at the Worlds last month shows that he is close to adding to his trophy cabinet. Paradoxically, Michael van Gerwen will be struggling to find room in his trophy cabinet, the Dutchman has 45 MAJOR HONOURS to his name, including 6 Premier League titles and 3 World Championship titles. He’s already got the better of Van den Bergh twice in the last month, can he make it 3 head-to-head victories in-a-row? The Green Machine will have been frustrated at losing in the 2023 World Championship Final (against Michael Smith) last month, but you feel it’s only a matter of time before MvG takes the World #1 ranking spot once more.