"Maybe this is where we are going to see Luke not be as dominant": Luke Littler fired Premier League Darts warning amid previous ProTour struggles

Luke Littler has been handed a warning by Matthew Edgar after he was defeated early on the opening night of the Premier League Darts by Gian van Veen who produced a 6-4 win to avenge a final loss at the PDC World Darts Championship.

Littler, the current World No.1 as ever was lauded heading into the opening night of the weekly roadshow but was quickly defeated. But Edgar sees him perhaps having struggles in this event due to the fact that it is the same quick sharp format as the ProTour.

Littler has often struggled in the Players Championship tournaments and has been the first to skip them. He nearly didn't qualify last year for the ProTour season ender, the Players Championship Finals and has often suffered early defeats like Michael van Gerwen and other big names due to the quick format and high standard.

Despite previously winning the roadshow, it could yet be Littler's achilles heel as he heads forward towards Antwerp next week.

“He’s vulnerable on the ProTour — it’s the same format, and Luke struggles there," said Edgar to OLBG.

“We’ve seen at times at the World Matchplay him going 5-0 down.

“We’ve seen him go multiple sets down to Gerwyn Price and then pull it back. He doesn’t have time in the Premier League. Maybe this is where we are going to see Luke not be as dominant.”

But darts influencer Charlie Murphy also part of the conversation sees a different complexion and that of whether the motivation is there yet in only week one compared to the rest of the field. He faces off against Luke Humphries next week but the defeat was perhaps a bit odd given his dominance in majors in recent times including the World Masters recently.

“I don’t think it’s going to continue for Luke to lose round one games. I don’t think that will happen very often.

“Let’s say we get about halfway through and it starts to get to the point where he needs to win nights to get into the top four — I can definitely see that happening.

“I think he can switch it on when he really needs to and when he really wants to. It’s night one — did it really matter to him? Yeah, he probably wanted to win, but there is that subconsciousness as well where he knows it’s not that important.”