Premier League preview, predictions and winner odds: Snakebite to strike

Tournament preview and best bets for the start of Premier League Darts.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Action, from 7pm Monday

Best bets

P Wright to win final
2pts each-way 5-1 general

J de Sousa to win final
1pt each-way 16-1 general

J Clayton to finish in the bottom two
1pt 12-1 Betfair, P Power

Preview

Peter Wright has been the UK Open champion, the European champion and the world champion but he's never won the Premier League – this could well be the year when Snakebite strikes gold.

There's a very different look to the 2021 Premier League campaign but one thing that doesn't change is Peter Wright's presence in the PDC's flagship invitational competition.

The Scot doesn't have the greatest of records for someone of his calibre who is making his eighth successive appearance – his run to the semis last year was his best effort since reaching the final in 2017, when he threw away victory against Michael van Gerwen.

But the world number three has proved many times he has the game to go with that big-tournament winning habit. He proved last week he's in fabulous form and is the preferred choice in a field weakened by Gerwyn Price’s exit.

It's a one-off Premier League this year with the ten players decamping to the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes for four solid weeks of intense action over the next couple of months culminating in finals night on May 28.

There are three debutants – Jonny Clayton, Dimitri van den Bergh and Jose de Sousa – as well as a quartet of PDC world champs – Van Gerwen, Gary Anderson, Rob Cross and, of course, Wright – with the field completed by last year's finalists, Glen Durrant and Nathan Aspinall, plus James Wade, a last-minute call-up for Covid victim Price.

Sky and the PDC will endeavour to give it the box-office treatment but however you dress it up the absence of crowds makes this year's Premier League arguably even more wide-open than ever.

Van Gerwen, yet to win a tournament this season, makes a fairly uneasy favourite ahead of Price, whose record in this event isn't great.

Both Durrant and Aspinall went off the boil at the end of last year while Cross has been off colour for a while. All three may well appreciate the empty venue. How Anderson will show up is anyone's guess as usual, although it seems likely there will be purple patches and quiet nights because that's what the Scot brings these days.

Consistency is the key to having a run at the semis and Wright boasts that in abundance. The Scot has been a winning machine for years now and the top four has to be the minimum ambition.

He has had a tidy enough start to the season culminating in a hugely impressive performance in the previous Pro Tour event, taking the first prize having averaged over 102 throughout the day. He beat Price in the final.

The most in-form player of the lot is Clayton. We have had only ten events so far and the Welshman has already made five finals, winning three of them, most notably at The Masters where Van Gerwen and Wright were among his scalps en route to a shock 150-1 triumph.

However, at a bigger price De Sousa looks to have a huge chance to make a name for himself.

The ultra-cool Portuguese pro always seemed a decent player who just needed to feel as though he belonged and look as though he believed. Victory at last autumn's Grand Slam killed those two birds.

An early exit at the worlds – averaging over 103 in defeat to Mervyn King – can happen to anyone, although he showed he's got bags of stomach for the scrap with a pair of last-leg shootout triumphs at the UK Open against King and Michael Smith. And his figures are sky-high.

The bottom two after the first nine matches are eliminated this year and defending champ Duzza looks vulnerable. He has not played well for a while and admitted this week he would have pulled out had the tournament been starting in February. He's 4-7 to get the chop, however, so there's no great appetite for a nibble especially as he believes he's got his mojo back.

Cross flopped last year and has to be considered again though so too do many of them. And first-timer Clayton, no matter how much he is improving, looks a massive price at 14-1.

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