Michael van Gerwen claimed a 8-5 victory over Jonny Clayton on Night 11 of Premier League Darts to go joint top alongside Nathan Aspinall and Dimitri van den Bergh.
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Clayton is usually a bogey player of sorts for Van Gerwen with wins being few and far between recently but he secured it in style with a 124 checkout and he acknowledged confidence as being a main reason.
"It wasn't as nice as yesterday but I had to work for this one really hardly and Jonny (Clayton) is always doing a good job against me. I was trying maybe too hard and I don't do what I want to do on the stage but even more I'm happy now with the win," said Van Gerwen to Sky Sports post match.
"This is what confidence does to you, I feel absolutely phenomenal and I know I've got more in the tank and I know I can do a lot better but games like this gives you confidence."
It's been duly noted that Van Gerwen has been more animated than usual to try and hype himself up and he said it is also due to his opponents being 'boring'.
"I have to because there's no crowd. I have to create games all by myself because most of my opponents I play they're not really nice to watch. There's nothing in them. They're a bit boring."
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"They're all good players but are they also good players when there's 8,000 people in the venue. That's a different story."
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𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔 𝗪𝗔𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗪𝗜𝗡 𝗜𝗧!
Michael van Gerwen closes out an 8-5 victory over Jonny Clayton in STYLE! He pins the bull for a 124 finish and he's up to second in the Premier League table!