Wayne Mardle: The Machine can remain in top gear against Whitlock

15Mar 2013

Betfair

The Manchester Arena is the venue for week seven of the Premier League Darts and Betfair Ambassador Wayne Mardle has given us his thoughts on each of the five games...

Michael van Gerwen v Wes Newton

Wes is improving week on week, if he can improve again he might run Van Gerwen close, though he'll probably have to hope that the young Dutchman has another off week.

MVG played, by his own high standards, poor last week when losing to Adrian Lewis but we all know that Lewis can beat anyone on his day, and it was good to see him back in some sort of form. Van Gerwen is short and rightfully so, but I think Wes will be no pushover.

Recommended Bet: Back Wes Newton +1.5 @ around 2.2

Adrian Lewis v Gary Anderson

Adrian got his first win last week and now he's up and running I think he can win again. He played well at the UK Masters over the weekend too, and it seems that he's got a bit of the swagger back that has been missing for far too long.

Anderson is hitting the outer ring a lot better and that makes him a massive danger to all, when Gary hits his doubles he usually wins. Whilst I fancy Lewis to win I wouldn't be going in too big as this is a tough game to call. Lewis to hit the most maximums might be the bet.

Simon Whitlock v Jame Wade

Wade is back, that's official. He's such a great match player, so tough to beat, he's averaged over 100 the last two weeks, and when he's in that mood then he's even tougher to beat.

Whitlock is reliable in the fact that he rarely under performs but he'll have to have his A game with him to get anything out of this, and I'm not certain the Aussie has been showing that kind of form of late.

Recommended Bet: Back James Wade to win @ 2.22

Raymond van Barneveld v Robert Thornton

What a Premier League debut so far for The Thorn. He's played some of his best darts ever on the big stage, and that's always the sign of a great player. Robert got a hiding last week from Wade however but he still averaged over 98 so there's no worries about him going off the boil - James was just fantastic on the night.

Barney played wonderfully well last week and has done since November when he won the Grand Slam. To beat the Dutchman nowadays you have to get into him early as he's such a good front runner. Barney is a major force in the league phase and I think he'll make the play-offs with ease.

Recommended Bet: Back Raymond van Barneveld to win @ 1.63

Phil Taylor v Andy Hamilton

Andy beat The Power at the weekend and as we know beating Taylor twice running is not something that happens a great deal. Hamilton is resolute though and he knows that this is going to be a game he is likely to lose but he also knows that on his day he has the game to spring a surprise.

Taylor has used new darts for the last three weeks and has lost two last-leg deciders against Wade and Anderson respectively. I think he will win but not with the ease anticipated.

Recommended Bet: Back Andy Hamilton +1.5 @ around 2.4