Michael Van Gerwen crashed out of the 2025 Premier League with yet another desperate defeat.
Van Gerwen was in the brink of elimination in the 2025 Premier League campaign.
He needed a quarter final victory over Nathan Aspinall and a nightly win to leapfrog his rival into fourth position to qualify for the play-offs at London’s O2 Arena next week.
The Sheffield crowd were in full voice on the final night with ‘The Green Machine’ knowing it was do or die at the oche.
His struggles have been well documented with Van Gerwen far from the levels of his previous tungsten brilliance.
And his woes on the big stage continued, with the Englishman delivering to secure his place at next week’s showpiece final week.
Aspinall cruised to a 6-2 victory and was delighted as he celebrated pinning the double top to finish the match.
The dart killed of Van Gerwen’s late assault on the play-offs and ensure Mr Brightside would feature on the London stage next week.
It saw Van Gerwen crash out of the competition at the last hurdle.
The mammoth seven-time winner was not at the races, and it was disappointment and dejection as he trudged off stage.
An anxious wait for an eighth title in the Premier League will go on, and he will be hoping to restore confidence and momentum in the coming weeks.
His latest defeat tops off a real patch of turmoil for the darting icon.
PDCVan Gerwen will not appear in London and will need to go back to the drawing board[/caption]
2025 has been a mixed bag for Van Gerwen, who started off the year positively.
He was beaten only by teenage prodigy Luke Littler in the World Championship final in January, putting together a remarkable run with some vintage tungsten magic.
But he has yet to pick up a major TV title so far and is suffering a real crisis of confidence.
And former PDC contender Colin Lloyd believes his time at the pinnacle of the sport is slowly fading.
“There are just far too many inconsistencies that have crept into his game over a period of time and unfortunately for him it’s getting a little bit more too often now,” he told talkSPORT.
“I’m going to say it like this, he’s lost that fear factor now. He’s not the dominant player he once was.
PDCAspinall was nearly in tears of joy after clinching his place at play-off night[/caption]
“I’m certainly not putting him down because he’s a class act and a class fella, but you’ve got the likes of Littler, [Luke] Humphries, [Nathan] Aspinall, [Gerwyn] Price, people away from the Premier League at the moment, Jonny Clayton, people like that all want a piece of the action.”
Van Gerwen will not play in the upcoming World Cup of Darts, refusing to represent the Netherlands this time out.
His next hope of major glory will come at Blackpool’s iconic Winter Gardens, as he searches for another World Matchplay title in July.
