Premier League Darts Night Eight tips and predictions: Luke Humphries hat-trick awaits in Ireland

The Premier League reaches the half-way mark on Thursday night as the action moves to the Emarald Isle and several players will need the luck of the Irish on their side if they are to stop Luke Humphries claiming a third successive night win.

Cool Hand Luke, who will be taking on basement boy Peter Wright in his quarter-final, has been dominant in recent weeks after taking a bit of time to get going.

On the other hand, Michael Van Gerwen, who was straight out of the blocks with three night wins out of the first four, is now looking to avoid a fourth consecutive quarter-final exit. 

The Green Machine takes on Gerwyn Price, who has not won a Premier League match since night three, and MVG should make a return to winning form. 

The other two quarter-finals see the consistent Luke Littler take on Michael Smith, while Rob Cross faces Nathan Aspinall in a pivotal clash, with both men having eleven points.

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Night eight quarter-finals (1900 GMT)

Luke Humphries vs Peter Wright

Nathan Aspinall vs Rob Cross

Michael Van Gerwen vs Gerwyn Price

Luke Littler vs Michael Smith

 

While Humphries initially struggled with the pressure of being world champion at the start of the year, he has now well and truly found his groove with his two night wins coming off the back of a run to the UK Open final in Minehead. 

Cool Hand Luke has had 100+ averages in six of his last seven Premier League matches and has won seven of his last eight in the competition to move top of the pile.

Meanwhile at the other end of the table is Wright who finally won his first match of the season at Nottingham, a 6-5 win against an out-of-form Price. 

Despite his return to winning ways last week, Snakebite will struggle against Humphries, who is showing the form that took him to world number one.

The other quarter-final in this half of the draw is fourth against fifth as Nathan Aspinall takes on Rob Cross, with this match likely to be pivotal in the play-off race.

Aspinall beat Cross 6-5 in last week's quarter-final, but both men have been extremely in consistent in recent weeks, with The Asp making it to three of the last four night finals and Voltage has only failed to make it past this stage twice.

It's a tough one to call, but World Matchplay champion Aspinall has the edge over Cross, with the world number four winning all three of his Premier League meetings with the 2018 world champion this season.

The other half of the draw sees Van Gerwen looking to get back to winning ways against Price in his quarter-final.

Van Gerwen's standards have slipped in recent weeks with three quarter-final exits on the spin, which came after a sublime start to the tournament for the Dutchman. 

Speaking of downturns in form, 2021 world champion Price has been struggling in the Premier League this year.

The Welshman is second bottom with a poor return of five points and needs a significant upturn in form if he wants to make the end of season jamboree.

Van Gerwen should return to winning ways and if he wins, he'll face Littler or Smith in the semi-final.

Littler has been quite the celebrity managing to balance appearances on Comic Relief and the Jonathan Ross Show with tungsten duels every Thursday and he has made quite the impact in his debut Premier League campaign.

The 17-year-old is currently third in the table and has only failed to win his quarter-final once, but he has struggled to exploit on the chances he's created, getting to just one night final.

Smith is far from his best at the moment, the world number three did make the final on night six at Brighton but that night was a rare bright spot in a woeful run of form, with Bully Boy failing to make it past the quarter-final in four of the last five.

While Littler is on the wrong side of the head-to-head with Smith, we expect that his near-perfect quarter-final record will continue here.

 

Suggested bets

Luke Humphries to win night eight

Luke Littler to beat Michael Smith

Nathan Aspinall to beat Rob Cross