Preview Premier League Darts 2026 Night 3 in Glasgow: Price vs Clayton headlines after MvG withdrawal hands Luke Littler a bye

After the Premier League Darts debut in Antwerp last week, the players travel this Thursday evening to Glasgow, Wales. Despite initial hopes, however, we will not see a clash between Michael van Gerwen and reigning world champion Luke Littler. Van Gerwen has been forced to withdraw due to illness.

After two nights played, Michael van Gerwen still tops the table with 8 points. Having won the opening night, he again reached the final last week. He lost there to Gerwyn Price, who climbed to second place with a total of 5 points. Jonny Clayton is currently third with 4 points, closely followed by Gian van Veen in fourth, who has collected 3 points over the first two nights.

Surprisingly, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries sit fifth and sixth with just 2 points. Across the first two nights both won only one match, so they didn’t make a dream start to their Premier League campaign. Bunting and Rock remain on 0 points after two nights and are still waiting for their first win.

We open the night with Gian van Veen. “The Giant” faces Stephen Bunting in his quarterfinal, who is still waiting for his first win. On paper this looks a favorable matchup for Van Veen. The World Championship finalist has impressed so far on his Premier League debut. On the opening night he reached the final straight away, and last week he narrowly lost in the semifinals to eventual winner Gerwyn Price. Still, it remains to be seen whether the 23-year-old can produce this level week in, week out.

To keep that good feeling going, Stephen Bunting seems the ideal opponent on paper. “The Bullet” has been off the boil for some time and failed to win his opening match on the first two nights. On the opening night he lost 6-2 to Michael van Gerwen, then a week later he went down 6-4 to Jonny Clayton.

Looking at the head-to-head, however, Bunting holds a slight edge. They have met 10 times in total, with Bunting winning six. Only 4 of those matches were on TV, but even there Bunting leads with 3 wins to Van Veen’s one.

Next up are Luke Humphries and Josh Rock. Both men have had a rough start to their 2026 campaign, but Humphries will generally travel to Glasgow with a much better feeling. “Cool Hand Luke” played two strong matches where the coin just didn’t fall his way. On the first night he ran into a Van Gerwen who hit every checkout, and last week he had 3 match darts to beat Luke Littler in the opener.

For Rock, his debut hasn’t gone as he would have hoped. On the first night he lost his opener to a rampant Jonny Clayton, who averaged close to 110. Last week, however, “Rocky” fell through the floor himself. In his opening match the Northern Irishman managed just a 79 average and lost relatively tamely 6-2. He’ll want to grab that first win quickly, otherwise this could start to weigh on him negatively.

Judging by the head-to-head between Humphries and Rock, it’s very close. The two have met seven times. Humphries has won four of those encounters, while Rock has come out on top three times. However, the last three meetings have all gone to the current world number two.

Due to illness, Van Gerwen has sadly been forced to withdraw from night three in Glasgow. Luke Littler therefore receives a bye to the semi-finals and a guaranteed point to his tally, whilst Van Gerwen is punished with a -6 leg difference.

Finally, we have a Welsh clash between Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price, who also met in last week’s semi-final in Antwerp. Price was in strong form over the past week, adding a Players Championship title on Tuesday and also winning Night Two of the Premier League. He narrowly took his opening match 6-5 against Gian van Veen, before beating his opponent this evening, Jonny Clayton, by the same scoreline. In the final, ‘The Iceman’ was then too strong for Michael van Gerwen, winning 6-3.

Clayton, as in Week One, won his opening match but again fell in the semi-finals. While he produced a very lackluster display in the last four during the first week, he offered Price more resistance last week. Even so, he had to concede the deciding leg to his good friend away from the oche.

The fact that Clayton and Price are close friends outside of darts makes it harder to play each other on the big stages, and ‘The Ferret’ seems to struggle with that the most. They have faced each other 40 times in total, with Price clearly on top with 28 wins over his compatriot. The last time Clayton beat Price was in the 2023 Premier League; since then, Price has won 10 in a row. Looking only at the Premier League, the head-to-head stands at 6-3 in favor of ‘The Iceman.’