Premier League Darts: Michael van Gerwen beats Nathan Aspinall in night four final in Newcastle
- Published
Van Gerwen won three nights on the way to winning the 2023 Premier League title
Michael van Gerwen made it three successive nightly wins in the Premier League of Darts with a 6-4 victory over Nathan Aspinall in Newcastle.
Seven-time champion Van Gerwen now has an eight-point lead at the top of the table after wins in Berlin and Glasgow.
He beat Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals before getting the better of Luke Littler in a last-leg decider.
Aspinall came into the night without a match win in this year's Premier League but beat Michael Smith and Rob Cross.
Van Gerwen told Sky Sports: "I love those gold trophies! It's good to win like I did.
"People think it's easy but it's not easy. All the pressure, you have to deal with it all the time.
"I'm not going to give myself any targets. I'm going week by week, no targets, no goals, just keep focussing otherwise I get bored.
"I don't know how many nights I can win, I don't want to give myself a target but it could be a record [number of weekly wins] this year."
Defending champion Van Gerwen was below par despite his win in Glasgow last week but he was close to his scintillating best on Thursday evening.
He averaged 107.27 against Price and secured a 6-4 victory despite only taking six of his 18 doubles.
His semi-final with Littler was the fourth time the pair have met since the English teenager's rise to prominence, and the Dutchman has now won three of those matches.
He missed six match darts, allowing Littler to force a decider, but broke the 17-year-old to progress to the final.
Van Gerwen then had to recover from an early break by Aspinall but won five legs on the spin to open up a commanding lead.
Aspinall, the Premier League runner-up in 2020, took out 170 to get the game back on throw but Van Gerwen broke again to seal the win.
Aspinall's two match victories leaves Scotland's Peter Wright as the only player yet to register a win this season, although he was much improved in his 6-5 defeat by Littler, who also had a 170 finish.
Wright averaged 103.37 but missed match darts to claim that elusive win.
Night five of the Premier League will take place in Exeter on Thursday, 29 February.
Night four results
Final
Nathan Aspinall 4-6 Michael van Gerwen
Semi-finals
Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Rob Cross
Luke Littler 5-6 Michael van Gerwen
Quarter-finals
Michael Smith 5-6 Nathan Aspinall
Rob Cross 6-5 Luke Humphries
Peter Wright 5-6 Luke Littler
Gerwyn Price 4-6 Michael van Gerwen
Night five fixtures
29 February in Exeter
Quarter-finals
Luke Humphries v Michael van Gerwen
Nathan Aspinall v Peter Wright
Gerwyn Price v Rob Cross
Luke Littler v Michael Smith