Premier League Darts: Making a case for Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor
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We’ve already been treated to 15 weeks of scintillating tungsten action in this year’s Premier League, but there’s still so much to play for as we head into Finals night.
Just four names remain in the competition – and they’re undoubtedly the biggest stars on the planet right now. Fitting, then, that they each ended up in the top four spots of the table.
Michael van Gerwen will head into Thursday night’s O2 Arena showdown as the 4/7 favourite to win his third Premier League trophy.
But we reckon the value lies elsewhere, and we’re focusing on one man in particular who’s taken this competition by storm over the years.
Phil Taylor has featured in a whopping 66% of all previous Premier League finals, winning 75% of them. Not too shabby.
He’s a whopping 10/1 to win this competition for the seventh time in 13 years.
Granted, he’s not done that since 2012 but there’s plenty to suggest he can cause an upset in his final year on the PDC circuit.
In fact, that’s a reason in itself. The Power announced earlier on in the year that he would retire after the 2018 PDC World Championships, so it’s likely he’ll want to go out with a bang, especially in a tournament in which he’s been so dominant over the years.
He’s available at 10/1 right now, but we think that this format favours the 16-time world champ.
His semi-final clash with Peter Wright is a race to 10 legs, something which will suit The Power down to the ground, especially given that he’s defeated Snakebite 10-5 on two occasions in the last eight months.
Wright has been in fine form this season, but he’s certainly beatable. Taylor himself proved that back in Manchester, just eight weeks ago, winning 7-5.
Were he to get through that clash, you can expect his odds of going all the way to fall substantially.
It’ll then come down to who’s best on the night, but recent form says Taylor can beat both Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen.
He breezed past MVG two weeks ago in Sheffield, winning 7-3, while two weeks prior to that he defeated Anderson 7-4.
Throw into the mix the fact that The Power will have the backing of a full house who will all be playing witness to his last eve night in the Premier League, and you have to say it’s almost written in the stars for him to lift this trophy for a seventh time.
But finally, his price alone is reason enough to get behind him.
It’s rare you’ll have seen Taylor out at 10/1 to win a tournament all that often – especially when just four names are still standing.
This is a position he loves being in. Our advice? Write of the greatest player ever to have picked up a set of darts at your peril.
There’ll certainly be plenty of punters hoping he can go out with a bang – and at 10/1, you can include us in that.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
