Wayne Mardle: Premier League closest to call after thrilling night in Cardiff
Premier League continues in Dublin next Thursday, coverage underway from 7pm on Sky Sports Action
Friday 21 February 2020 12:43, UK
Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle gives his thoughts after night three of the Premier League, which provided no shortage of thrills and spills.
All round, what a brilliant night of darts in Cardiff!
Premier League is wide open
I'm looking at all the fixtures, week after week, it's so hard to predict! It really is.
You get the likes of Daryl Gurney who had played two, lost two, and not played well at all. Then he picked up a well-earned, well-deserved point against Gerwyn Price.
Michael van Gerwen is beatable. We knew that, but now we've seen it.
And don't doubt Duzza! Glen Durrant couldn't find a double or combination finish last week against Fallon Sherrock. In Cardiff, he was absolutely deadly against a legend of the game, Gary Anderson.
I just think it's so, so tough to predict who gets eliminated, or who will make the play-offs.
Most of the players are going to finish around a similar points tally. Not all of them, but four of five of them may go into the penultimate week facing elimination, and the same when it comes to promotion.
This year's competition could be one of the closest and hardest to call.
Smith finds his groove
Michael Smith couldn't get the job done last week, leading 6-2 against Gerwyn Price. Well he certainly finished the job against Jonny Clayton, the Challenger who was also superb. But Smith was without a doubt the performer of the night. He was absolutely magnificent with checkouts of 167 and 142 to win the game.
It was fantastic. Jonny Clayton started off with a 13-darter. But Michael reeled off seven legs on the bounce. Some of his finishing, it's so natural. It becomes instinctive.
There are so many doubters on social media, he's just got to stop listening. The man has got a special talent. And when he plays like that, it's effortless like Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson and a few others. He's a special talent.
Clayton a real nice human being. He's not full-time. How he's this good on a shoe-string, in terms of the hours of play he puts in, it's incredible. That shows you how talented he is. He's got guts, he's got bottle, he's got composure, and he's shown twice that he can beat the very, very best - he's beaten Michael van Gerwen in the Grand Slam and in the Masters.
Michael Smith was just better than him in Cardiff, but the 7-1 result was probably a bit harsh.
Aspinall stuns MVG
We know Nathan Aspinall has got composure, we know he can handle the pressure, and that was a little bit of revenge for the World Championship semi-final. The Asp is a world-class player.
Due to the fact he hasn't been around that long, we kind of still think that he's finding his feet. He's not. He's bona fide. He's here to stay.
He's just got that composure under pressure. What I like about him, he just bounces and bounces around the oche.
He did a hell of a job against MVG. It could have been a bigger winning margin!
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Live Premier League Darts
Coverage of the Premier League continues on Thursday, February 27 in Dublin at 7pm on Sky Sports Action with William O'Connor taking on Michael van Gerwen. Don't forget, the Premier League is on every Thursday all the way through until the Play-Offs in London on May 21.
