8/13 – Peter Wright to beat Robert Thornton
Robert Thornton may have narrowly avoided elimination from the Betway Premier League but the tournament remains a struggle for him.
The Thorn has just one win and two draws from 10 games and, despite the morale boost of surviving the drop, has lost his last two matches.
His tournament average is a poor 91 and he has hit the least 180s and 140s of anyone still in the competition.
Wright has not been at his best this season, but is still well in the hunt for a top-four spot.
Even with below-par performances in recent weeks he is unbeaten in three, proving just how tough he is to get past on any given night.
Snakebite has not lost to Thornton in their last eight meetings, and looks a virtual certainty to record another win over his fellow Scotsman on Thursday.
1/2 – Phil Taylor to beat Raymond van Barneveld
Phil Taylor is top of the table and playing superbly, meaning there can only be one winner when he faces Raymond van Barneveld who has just one win in seven.
Taylor was battered 7-2 by Barney in the opening week but he has not lost since, winning eight and drawing two.
Van Barneveld, on the other hand, has only won twice more with 11 points now separating them in the standings.
The Power has already avenged that opening-night defeat with a 9-3 hammering of the Dutchman in the UK Open, but he will still want to put it right on the Betway Premier League stage as well.
There is little to suggest that he won’t do that in Belfast.
7/2 – James Wade and Adrian Lewis to draw
Level on points after 10 weeks and both still in the mix for the semis, James Wade and Adrian Lewis are always hard to separate.
Their tournament averages and check-out ratios are near identical, with Lewis scraping a 7-5 victory in their previous meeting in the competition as Wade missed numerous chances for the draw.
Wade has the better of the head-to-head record of the two, and has only lost once in six – to Phil Taylor, no less – since that defeat in Aberdeen.
Lewis, however, has not lost to Wade in their last five encounters, and with nothing to choose between them a draw looks the most likely outcome in this one.
4/6 – Michael van Gerwen to beat Gary Anderson
MVG is second in the table with a whopping tournament average of 109.8, but will still be disappointed with how things have gone recently.
Three draws have left him three points behind Taylor, and that is the kind of thing that annoys the world No. 1.
He is still playing very well, though – averaging a shade under 118 last week and then reaching all three Players Championship finals in Barnsley over the weekend.
Anderson has been unpredictable of late, drawing with Wade and losing to Taylor in his last two Premier League outings.
He also had a funny weekend in Barnsley, losing in the first round on Friday before reaching Saturday’s semi-final where he lost to Mighty Mike.
The Dutchman also won comfortably when they met in this competition two months ago, and should manage to repeat the feat in Belfast.
7/2 – Raymond van Barneveld and Robert Thornton to draw
With both men likely to have lost earlier in the evening this is a tough one to call, but a draw between the pair of them looks very feasible.
Playing twice in one night with a break in between is a tricky situation to be in so we cannot expect a high-quality contest.
It is tempting to pick Thornton to win as he seems the more determined character, but he has only ever beaten Barney once on stage and that was only very narrowly and came three years ago.
Barney only edged out the Scotsman 7-5 in their previous meeting, and with two of their other four Premier League encounters ending as draws – another stalemate could be on the cards here.
A £10 bet on the five-fold accumulator returns £817.78*.
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*Odds and amounts correct at time of publication but subject to change. See site for latest.
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