Van Gerwen and Taylor set for Premier League final tussle

Over three months on since the Premier League’s dartists took the stage for the first outing of the season in Leeds, four will descend on the O2 stage to discover the identity of the champion.

The cast of this competition’s final act may as well have been booked weeks ago. Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis have all occupied the top four spots in the standings since round eight and are deserving participants.

Van Gerwen and Taylor have been a cut above their rivals for much of the campaign and have flittered between first and second place since week five. They ended up separated by just two points after 16 games and were comfortably ahead of Anderson and Lewis when all was said and done.

There can be little surprise then that the pair are favoured to win their respective semi-finals. Van Gerwen is a 1/6 chance to beat Lewis, while Taylor stands to have less of a stroll against Anderson as the 8/11 jolly.

Anderson is the defending champion and won’t be the worst 11/10 shot ever backed, but did lose both times he met Taylor during the group phase and won the fewest matches of the four semi-finalists.

In the other battle, Lewis stands little chance of causing an upset.

He pales in every conceivable comparison with Van Gerwen, having hit 24 less 180s during the Premier League, averaged 96.50 to MVG’s 107.93 and registered a checkout percentage almost 10 points worse off. The Englishman has also won just five of the previous 22 meetings with the world number one.

With both the favourites standing a decent chance of progressing then, taking the 11/10 double on Van Gerwen and Taylor wins looks to be the way forward.

In addition, Mighty Mike led his rivals in both total 180s and highest checkout while topping the league. He can be backed at 10/11 and 7/4 in either arena during the semi-finals too.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.