Night 10 of the 2024 PDC Premier League Darts season will arrive in Manchester in April. The interest in the already popular competition has gone through the roof this season, thanks to the participation of teenage sensation Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler.
Littler will be a star attraction in Manchester, especially as he lines up in a blockbuster quarter-final tie against the on-form Michael Van Gerwen. But will he go all the way to win maximum points on the night?
Here’s all you need to know about the Premier League Darts in Manchester 2024, along with some predictions for how the night’s draw may play out:
Premier League night 10 details
The AO Arena in Manchester hosts the action on April 4th, night 10 of 16, in the 2024 Premier League Darts season. The night’s action will be played in a knockout format between the eight Premier League stars.
The draws for each night of the regular season are all made ahead of the campaign, so players know what fixture awaits them in the opening round.
A quarter-final exit on the night earns a player nothing, a semi-final finish rewards two points, and the runner-up gets three. The winner of night 10 receives the maximum five points that count towards the overall league standings.
Quarter-final matches night 10 Manchester:
• Nathan Aspinall vs Rob Cross
• Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen
• Michael Smith vs Luke Humphries
• Gerwyn Price vs Peter Wright
The 2024 Premier League Darts season so far
After his exploits in the most recent world championship, becoming the youngest-ever player to reach the final, Luke Littler was rewarded with a place on the Premier League Darts circuit for 2024.
His debut night in Cardiff started spectacularly when he beat Luke Humphries, the player who had defeated him in the 2024 World Championship Final. But then Littler’s run was cut short in the next round by Michael Smith. Smith would go on to claim the win in Cardiff on night 1, beating Gerwyn Price in the final.
Reigning Premier League Darts champion Michael Van Gerwen then won night two before adding two more consecutive wins to pull out a lead at the top of the table. MVG couldn’t extend it to four wins on the spin as Nathan Aspinall pulled off a surprise success in Exeter on night five to claim maximum points.
But then came a surge by Luke Humphries, who strung together an impressive three-night winning sequence in Brighton, Nottingham, and Dublin. That sprung him to a commanding lead at the top of the regular season standings at the halfway stage of the season, followed by Michael van Gerwen.
Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith played very well through the early stages of the campaign, each making three appearances in night finals, but both only winning one. On the other hand, as he did last season, former world champion Peter Wright struggled for form, winning just one match across the first eight weeks of action.
As many players have found, the Premier League Darts circuit is challenging. There’s a lot of travel, and unlike building momentum in a tournament, starting fresh every week can be a challenge. Littler reached only one final in the first half of the 2024 Premier League Darts season.
But Littler’s record in the first half of the season was decent, as he produced an even W7 L8 match record, keeping pace with the likes of established performers Aspinall and Smith at the campaign’s midway point.
Manchester Premier League Darts night predictions
The pressure starts mounting on players in the second half of the regular season. The time crunch in reaching and securing a top-four finish is apparent. The top four go through to the Premier League Darts playoffs at the end of the season to be in with a chance of winning the title.
Given what has already played out this season, here is a look at the upcoming quarter-final matches in Manchester for the Premier League Darts Night 10:
Nathan Aspinall vs Rob Cross
Aspinall, a winner on night five, had a slow start to the season but has since gained some nice momentum. He reached three finals in a span of four nights but could only convert once. Still, ‘The Asp’ will fancy his chances against Rob Cross, who has struggled in recent Premier League outings.
While Aspinall hit good form on night nine in Belfast, Cross has lost his last four Premier League matches. The Englishman has only been to one night’s final in this season’s PL. Also, working against him is the head-to-head, as Cross has lost all four games against Aspinall this season.
Luke Littler vs Michael van Gerwen
Darts sensation Luke Littler struck gold in Belfast on week nine, winning his first Premier League Darts night. That came after one of the toughest draws he could have received, beating world number one Luke Humphries in his opener, then romping past Michael van Gerwen before beating Nathan Aspinall in the final.
That will have done wonders for his confidence on this circuit, and now he meets MVG in Manchester’s round of action. Last week’s success put Littler above the Dutchman in the league standings, and it means that Van Gerwen hasn’t been to a night’s final since week four. It has also been a back-to-back success for Littler against ‘Mighty Mike’, and the youngster could sweep past him again.
Michael Smith vs Luke Humphries
This is another mouthwatering clash in the opening round of action in Manchester. Luke Littler snapped Luke Humphries’s three-week winning streak in the Premier League last time out. But Humphries was straight back to business, winning a European Tour event on the weekend. The world number one has won 11 of his last 12 matches in all competitions.
Smith has been inconsistent with his recent form and has fallen in the quarter-finals in the last two rounds of Premier League action, one of those a heavy 6–2 loss against Humphries on night eight. The head-to-head record shows clear dominance by Humphries, who is on a five-match winning streak against ‘Bully Boy’.
Gerwyn Price vs Peter Wright
A match between two players fighting for scraps at the foot of the table. Price reached the final on night one but has had a poor campaign by his standards. He failed to win a match from night four through night seven and has won only two matches in the last eight rounds of action.
Peter Wright failed to collect a match victory in any of the first six rounds but has two in the last three. It has been unconvincing stuff by them both this season, and the head-to-head doesn’t give much of a clue, with three wins each in the last six meetings. Price perhaps shades this one after finding some form in a European Tour event last weekend.
Semi-finals
Projecting things forward to the final four in Manchester, it could be an intriguing Aspinall vs Littler fixture. Aspinall is a rock-steady player, one of the most consistent around. But he has struggled to handle the power of Littler, losing three of their four previous meetings. Littler is 2–1 up from three PL meetings this season and would be the favourite.
The most likely outcome for a projected Luke Humphries vs Gerwyn Price semi-final would be a victory for Humphries. He’s been on phenomenal form all year and will be hard for Price to knock over, as ‘The Iceman’ just hasn’t brought the heat this season.
Final
Littler vs Humphries would be a crowd-pleaser of a final in Manchester. This is Littler’s home turf, and he will have the crowd behind him. Littler has won the last four meetings against Humphries and seems to have the world number one in his pocket at the moment, but three of those wins were only by a deciding leg. Humphries was on sparkling form on the recent European Tour, destroying Michael van Gerwen 8–1 in the final. He could carry that momentum through and snap his losing streak against Littler.
Order of Merit standings and projections
Luke Humphries is currently riding the top spot in the PDC Order of Merit. Given his streak of form in the Premier League, he will be one of the leading contenders in Manchester. The draw in Manchester opens up nicely for him, as he avoids the only two players he believes are capable of beating him at the moment, Littler and Van Gerwen, until a potential final.
Van Gerwen is second in the current Order of Merit standings, and everyone knows what MVG is about, of course. He’s a proven winner and expert in this format, and he has been crowned champion in six of the last eight Premier League Darts seasons.
Aspinall is currently in the top four of the Order of Merit, with only Humphries, Van Gerwen and Michael Smith ahead of him. With glimpses of good, steady form, something he has made a name for himself with, it would be no great surprise to see Aspinall go close.
So that’s two of the top four in the PDC Darts Order of Merit projected to square off in the final of Manchester. The stats suggest that it will be one of those four anyway. Littler’s success on night nine is the only time a night of Premier League darts this season hasn’t been won by a player in the Order of Merit top four.
Previous winners in Manchester
The last two winners in Manchester were Michael Smith in 2023 and James Wade in the previous year. Manchester had hosted nights of Premier League Darts action before that, but under a different format of round-robin league fixtures, and therefore, there was no winner of the night.
The bigger picture
The action will continue through week 16, the final round of regular season action on May 16th. That leads directly into the playoffs of May 23rd, aka finals night. That will be in London at the O2, where the semi-finals (best of 19 legs) and final (best of 21 legs) will be contested.
Will there be another title for Michael van Gerwen or a spectacular title for one of the big debut boys, either Luke Humphries or Luke Littler? That’s not out of the question, as Glen Durrant won the title on his debut season in 2020, as did Jonny Clayton in 2021.
Another way to put that would be that the last two winners of the Premier League Darts, besides Michael van Gerwen, have been debut season winners.
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