Raymond van Barneveld has said that it is harder to win the Premier League than any of the other major tournaments.

That's because you can't just rely on momentum; you've got to get yourself ready week after week. Even Phil Taylor found it hard to get going in the first half of his match in Edinburgh.

It's particularly difficult for the likes of Barney and John Part who are easily disrupted by their travel arrangements. They tend to come in relaxing too much or they are too tense. Barney has been averaging 100 in recent tournaments, but he's finding it hard to keep that up week after week in the Premier League.

King: handling the pressure

But Mervyn King seems to have no problem with it all and at the moment he is deservedly top of the table. This is the guy who used to wear earplugs for crowds of 1,000 but nowadays he doesn't seem at all bothered by crowds of 8,000.

Since coming to the PDC he has done very well and being a very cocky and self-confident player, he seems determined to prove to everybody what he's capable of.

He is not fazed by the crowd, he is not fazed by the occasion and he's not fazed by coming up against the likes of Taylor or Barney.

The polar opposite is James Wade. This is a guy who had three nine-darters in 2006 and won the World Matchplay and the Grand Prix in 2007. You'd have thought he would have consolidated that success, but he was destroyed 8-1 by King last week with only a 90 average.

The other guy that's in trouble at the moment is Wayne Mardle, who seems to be playing in fits and starts. I think the negative reaction of the Scottish fans really got to him.

There's too many things going on in his head for us to see the best of him at the moment.

Let's look at this week's matches in Coventry:

TERRY JENKINS v PHIL TAYLOR
Taylor finished his last four legs in Edinburgh with an average of 124, which is simply phenomenal.

I'm not sure what happened to him in the opening legs because he didn't really look with it, but on this form he ought to average 107 again in Coventry. He doesn't like being second and he'll want to let Merv know that he's out to get him.

Jenks will be kicking himself that he didn't beat Mardle last week, but I can't see him getting too close to The Power on Thursday night.

I would think this will be about 8-3 to Taylor.

RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD v JAMES WADE
In many ways this is the most interesting match of the night.

Barney should be averaging about 100, but he has perhaps made too many changes. He has sacked his Zen Master, he keeps switching between his old darts and his new darts and he does tend to deflate faster than anybody else.

With Wade's talent he should make a match of this, but I've seen nothing in the last two weeks to suggest he can contend with Barney.

In my opinion he gives his cards away too much. The opponent can see when he's rattled because he rolls his eyes and chastises himself.

I've been talking to some sports scientists at the University of Wales and they told me about the idea of "positive self talk". If you chastise yourself too much it leads to mistakes and you disturb your own concentration, as we're seeing with Wade.

He needs to be more like Taylor. He's been known to stick darts in his leg (thankfully he never sharpens them), but when he speaks to himself he says something positive like 'come on Philip'.

I can't see James finding his form, so I'm putting Barney down for an 8-5 win.

MERVYN KING v JOHN PART
As I've often said, the Premier League is the modern version of exhibition darts.

Part seems to play this in the right spirit, he always goes out for a steak and chips with some pals after each event and he looked as though he was enjoying himself in his draw with Barney.

However, he only averaged 93 and he'll need to up that quite a lot because his opponent averaged 104 last week.

I've already discussed how impressed I am with King and I think he'll win this one narrowly 8-6. It could be the best game of the night.

JELLE KLAASEN v WAYNE MARDLE
Klaasen makes too many mistakes because of his balance. He does go right over and his arm goes out of sync with his shoulder.

When he goes for a cover shot from the 60 to the treble 19, he is nowhere near as consistent as he needs to be. He tends to be off balance when he lets the dart fly and he needs to improve on that.

As for Mardle, when he isn't fully concentrated, his technique goes awry and he ends up in the treble five instead of the treble 20.

So I can see this match being decided by mistakes and I think it's got a draw written all over it. And that's no bad thing in darts because the draws are often the most exciting matches.

And finally...

The local newspaper in Coventry asked me why darts is so popular and I came up with this answer.

When darts first started the crowd was 85 per cent darts fans and 15 per cent party people. When we when to Frimley Green it was mainly party people coming down in their Blues Brothers casuals.

Nowadays going to darts is like going to a rock concert. The Premier League audiences are made up of 33 per cent darts fans and 66 per cent party people.

It's also interesting how you get different and surprising allegiances wherever you go. For example Barney was by far the most popular player in Edinburgh last week (maybe it's something to do with all the Dutch mercenaries from Bonnie Prince Charlie's time).

Various players have their own individual fan clubs. There's a King fan club, a Part fan club and a lot of them aren't obvious. Wherever you go the crowd seem to like different players.

That's one of the things that makes darts so unique.

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