The expectation within the Premier League Darts tournament is that the two Lukes will make it through to the Play Offs and the other six players are fighting it out for two places.
However, those other six are all amongst the best players on the Tour and you just know that none of them are thinking the same way, while Night 1 saw neither Littler nor Humphries make the Final.
Instead it was Michael van Gerwen who got the better of Gian van Veen as the former looks to bounce back from a poor 2025 Premier League campaign.
With the majority of the players resting ahead of the first night in Antwerp, an opportunity is available to those heading into Night 2 knowing that both Lukes will not be able to pick up points as they open in the Quarter Final.
The bottom half is the one where the four players will all feel they can reach the Final and at least put some quality points on the board even if they come up short of winning, but we are obviously still very early in this tournament which comes to a conclusion at the end of May.
With that being said, that does not mean this is not a big night for all involved as we saw last year how things can spiral out of control if those early points are not placed on the board.
On Night 2, the bottom half does look weaker and that is where Gerwyn Price could make hay after his narrow Quarter Final loss last week.
He has been one of those playing at the two Players Championship events on Monday and Tuesday and the effort in the second of those has continued to show the form that Price is producing.
The Quarter Final is not going to be easy, but the Welshman could build some real momentum into the Final and he is set as the second favourite here.
Last week I also mentioned that Luke Littler has not performed on Night 1 in the previous two editions of the Premier League and he suffered another early exit- he reached the Final in 2024 on Night 2 and won in 2025 and so it is perhaps no surprise he has been set as the player to beat, even when competing in the tougher half fo the draw.
Luke Littler to win & most 180s v Luke Humphries: The Premier League Final was won by Luke Humphries when facing Luke Littler, but it is the World Number 1 who has won the last four matches between these players.
In last year's Premier League, Littler had won five of the eight matches between the players in the table before losing that Final.
He did beat Luke Humphries in a highly competitive Final at the World Masters earlier this month and Luke Littler made a point out of the fact that Humphries continued to fight hard and believe in what he was trying to do even when the match seemed to be slipping away from him.
This has been one of the criticisms of Luke Humphries, who never really got to enjoy his time as World Champion and World Number 1 for as long as he would have imagined with all that happening at the same time as Luke Littler's emergence.
The former World Number 1 has high praise for his young rival, but you have to feel the urgency will be with Luke Littler after the disappointing defeat in the Quarter Final last week.
Even in a losing effort, you would anticipate that Littler's power scoring and maximum hitting would surpass Luke Humphries, as it did in the defeat to Gian van Veen. Both players rested earlier this week rather than travelling to play the opening Players Championship tournaments, which is something that both Lukes have suggested will be a long-term part of the schedule management when those tournaments are played outside of Wigan.
Tiredness and fatigue should not be a factor, as it may have been in the performances on Night 1 just days after the World Master Final. That should mean plenty of big scores, but Littler looks the right player to back having shown his Night 2 recoveries after poor Night 1 performances in the last couple of years of the Premier League.
Michael van Gerwen to win & over 1.5 180s v Josh Rock: 2025 was a difficult personal year for Michael van Gerwen and that had to have an impact on his performances on the oche.
He did win a TV title, but van Gerwen was seen significantly behind the top two players in the World Rankings and he entered the World Darts Championship as a relatively big outsider compared with his previous successes.
That being said, the Dutchman has also been speaking much more positively about 2026 and what can be achieved and he is still very confident that his best level will give any opponent problems.
Winning one of the two Masters events played in the Middle East in January has been followed by a Night 1 win in the Premier League and Michael van Gerwen will be looking to build on that.
Last year he failed to Qualify for the Players Championship, but Michael van Gerwen took in both tournaments earlier in the week and reached the Semi Final on Monday and Quarter Final on Tuesday. The performances were at a very good level and the World Masters aside, he has looked much closer to what we have come to expect from him over recent years.
He can beat Josh Rock, who lost on his Premier League debut to Jonny Clayton and who did play earlier this week.
There is no doubting the talent that Rock possesses, but this is a learning curve for him to be playing with the elite every week and that can be tough both mentally and physically. The Northern Irishman has perhaps not played up to the level that helped his nation win the World Cup back in June and Rock was crushed by Luke Littler at the World Masters.
You do have to wonder if Josh Rock is going to be a little undercooked early in the Premier League with the limited competitive darts played since the World Championship.
He did have a couple of close wins over Michael van Gerwen in 2025, which will help in the confidence department, but the World Number 4 has looked really focused and secure at least two maximums on his way to a win in this Quarter Final.
Jonny Clayton-Stephen Bunting both over 2.5 180s: At the start of the Premier League, these two players could not be split easily by the layers when it came to finding a favourite to finish bottom of the League standings.
The 2025 Premier League could not have gone much worse for Stephen Bunting and he suffered yet another Quarter Final defeat on Night 1 of the 2026 tournament. He has been struggling for consistency for several months now and that was one of the main reasons so many believed that he should not be included in the Premier League this time around.
As much as Bunting insists that he is not worrying about what the critics think, you do know the pressure is going to ramp up if he cannot start putting some strong points on the board very soon.
Jonny Clayton is a former Premier League Champion and has been desperate to find the consistency to force his way back into the elite competition. He had a solid year to earn one of the eight places and Clayton has Qualified for the Play Offs in each of his previous appearances in the Premier League.
He will have been hurt by so many people writing him off, but Clayton did win a match last week before losing to Gian van Veen in the Semi Final and he is in the 'weaker' half of the Night 2 tournament.
Both players were resting ahead of this match and it is Clayton who has been set as a deserved favourite- both are capable of getting things ramped up in the maximum hitting market and a match that should go at least nine Legs can see both rack up three of those.
Whoever can handle some of the pressure the best with the potential for decent points to be secured may be the one that comes out on top with the narrow lean being with the Welshman.
Gerwyn Price to win v Gian van Veen: Five of the eight Premier League players did not take part in the Players Championship tournaments played earlier in the week, but both Gerwyn Price and Gian van Veen did.
They had very different performances.
Gian van Veen was beaten in the Second Round in Players Championship 1 and the opening Round in Players Championship 2 and he will have been disappointed with the numbers. Yes, he was beaten by another impressive effort from Justin Hood, but the loss to Madars Razma was not against an opponent producing huge numbers and the Gian van Veen performances were not what we have come to expect from him.
Perhaps it was down to reaching the Final on Night 1 of the Premier League in his debut appearance at the event.
The World Number 3 was solid in his two wins over Luke Littler and Jonny Clayton, but found Michael van Gerwen too good and Gian van Veen will need Gerwyn Price to have cooled down.
Like his opponent, Gerwyn Price was beaten in the Second Round on Monday, but that was after putting an average of over 103 on the board against Connor Scutt.
Things went much better on Tuesday as Price crushed opponents on his way to the Final and he was beaten by Wessel Nijman, despite having an average of over 107 after all of the best of fifteen Legs were needed.
The Welshman lost in the Quarter Final last week, but will feel he should have beaten Luke Humphries, much as the Ice Man will feel he should have beaten Luke Littler at the World Masters.
There is no doubt that Gerwyn Price is right amongst the very best performers on the Tour right now and he has been for a number of months, even if the big titles have just eluded his grasp.
This is going to be a fun match, but it was a surprise that Price was going to be a slight underdog across the board, although that may not be the case now.
Even then, Gezzy looks the right player to back in this Quarter Final on the form he has been putting together in 2026.
MY PICKS: Luke Littler to Win & Most 180s @ 2.30 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Michael van Gerwen to Win & Over 1.5 180s @ 2.15 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Both Jonny Clayton & Stephen Bunting Over 2.5 180s @ 2.30 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Gerwyn Price @ 1.91 Bet365 (1 Unit)
Darts 2026: 6-9, - 0.96 Units (14 Units Staked, - 6.86% Yield)
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