It hasn't been the start to the Premier League Darts season Jonny Clayton would have hoped for but Racing Post tipster Steve Davies fancies he may come good in Scotland. 

After Gerwyn Price admitted the home crowd in Cardiff "got me over the line" in Week 2 of the Premier League last Thursday, Peter Wright will be hoping Glasgow does him proud.

Snakebite, the sole Scot in the field with Gary Anderson missing out, certainly needs fans at the OVO Hydro to give him a lift having failed to win a single game in the first two rounds.

But Racing Post darts tipster Steve Davies isn't so sure and fancies Wright may complete a hat-trick of first-round slip-ups.
 

Favourite van Gerwen hoping to make it third time lucky

Michael van Gerwen heads the betting at 2/1 for Week 3 of the Premier League from the OVO Hydro in Glasgow.

He looks the most consistent of the eight-man field after two weeks having reached a final and a semi-final and boasts the highest tournament average of 102.26. During last week's loss to Gerwyn Price he actually averaged a mind-boggling 110.75.

But the fact that he hasn't won yet would surely make punters wary of jumping on the Dutchman when the field is so competitive.

Eight of the 14 matches played to date have been won by the outsider so the message going to Glasgow is expect the unexpected.

Jonny Clayton won there last year but hasn't won a game yet so far this term. But at 9/1 the Welshman, who just enjoyed a decent weekend in Barnsley in the Players Championship, looks to be worth a nibble now. 
 

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Wright all wrong for home country glory

The Glasgow crowd will certainly want Peter Wright to deliver the goods, just as Gerwyn Price did for the Welsh crowd in Cardiff a week ago.

To succeed, however, Wright first has to see off Dimitri van den Bergh and, in all honesty, he doesn't make a great deal of appeal at 8/13.

Historically, Snakebite has a solid record against the Belgian though. Las year they met three times with the Scot winning twice. It was 1-1 in the majors.

Wright is scoring well enough, although on his last three trips to the Hydro he has played poorly, not won, and was famously drubbed 7-1 by Raymond van Barneveld in 2018.

Both men went to Barnsley at the weekend for the first two Pro Tour events of the year and Van den Bergh came away with a 5-2 winning record, Wright just 2-2. Dancing Dimitri has to be worth a shout at 13/10.
 

Which first-hurdle flier is set for an early fall?

The opening game pits van Gerwen against Nathan Aspinall, the only two players in the field who have yet to suffer a first-round defeat in the opening two weeks.

If head-to-head form is your guide then van Gerwen's the man. They met three times in 2022 and the Green Machine won all three.

If Premier League head-to-head form is preferred, however, it paints a different picture – they've met four times in this competition, the Asp winning two, van Gerwen just one.

Neither man had great weekends in Barnsley but both are clearly playing well.

The Asp will be fighting the crowd but if he stays resolute he can possibly cover a 1.5-leg spread at 6/5. And as the tournament's top maximum hitter he can definitely land the most 180s at 6/4.
 

Smith to extend Premier edge over Iceman

The bottom half of the draw pits Michael Smith against Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton against Chris Dobey.

And Smith looks a decent bet against Gezzy at 4/5 even though Price won in Week 2.

The fact is, and The Iceman was the first to admit it, the crowd helped him through because he wasn't throwing particularly great stuff. Indeed the Welshman actually boasts the lowest tournament average of the eight players even though he is sitting joint top of the table.

They met four times in last year's Premier League with Bully Boy winning the last three of those skirmishes and the world champ can come good once more.

Week 1 winner Dobey fell at the first in Cardiff, beaten by Price, though Clayton also suffered a first-round roughing up by Smith.

Clayton's Achilles' heel thus far is his finishing, not his scoring. He boasts a sub-30 percent checkout rate which simply doesn't cut it. Sort that out and victories will follow and he'll be back shooting ton-plus averages, hence the advice to back him to clear 96.5 at 10/11.