Top Two Collide in Manchester

The top two in the Premier League meet at Manchester MEN Arena when Gary Anderson and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor go head to head.

Anderson maintained his 100% record in the event by comfortably beating James Wade last time out and sits atop of the Premier League table with eight points from his opening four games. The Scot has gone form strength to strength since reaching the final of the 2011 PDC World Championship and is now considered Taylor’s closest challenger in the sport.

The Power has bounced back amicably after losing his opening Premier League fixture and has now won three games on the bounce to move to second in the table. There is no doubting that the 15-time World Champion now recognises Anderson as the main challenger to his authority in darts.

"I love playing him, he's a great player and it's a massive match to be involved in, so I'm happy to get the win again. Playing Gary Anderson next week in Manchester will be brilliant for me and I'm really up for it now,” said Taylor after beating Raymond van Barneveld last week.

The bookmakers are slightly favouring Taylor in the betting and offer odds of 13/10 about the Premier League defending champion while Anderson is 6/4 to pick up the two points. Given the equality of these two giants of the sport the draw at odds of 7/2 is likely to have plenty of supporters amongst punters.

James Wade and Raymond van Barneveld were on the receiving end of thrashing’s from Anderson and Taylor last week, and now face each other this Thursday.

Barney started slowly against Taylor last week and the game was on course for a whitewash at one stage. However, the Dutchman made a good recovery after the break and could have even stolen point but for a few crucial missed doubles.

The bookmakers are again finding it difficult to separate these two players and offer odds of 13/10 on each player picking up the two points. The draw is again priced at 7/2.