
Luke Littler beats Gerwyn Price to edge closer to retaining Premier League crown
But no one has caused him more trouble than Gerwyn Price and it looked like the Welshman was going to prosper again as he led 6-4 at the break.
Luke Littler wins six of the last seven legs against Gerwyn Price to complete a superb comeback in our opening semi-final!
The World Champ is one win away from retaining his crown!#PLDarts25 pic.twitter.com/oHO7yYQASm
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) May 29, 2025
Littler had a word with himself, though, and returned to the stage a different animal, winning six out of seven legs to claim a 10-7 victory.
It was the type of spell which has defined his short career, where his ability to get on a roll means he is never out of a match.
Littler will face Luke Humphries in the final later, knowing one more win will see him follow in the footsteps of Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen in defending a Premier League crown.
'The first 10 legs I went 6-4 down and I went off stage and needed to get myself up for it,' he said on stage. 'The first five or six legs I was nervous, but I love coming on after a break.
'I relaxed myself and got the job done.
'I stormed off the stage but that was just in my own head, I sat down had a drink, cooled myself down and told myself I could do it. I got the job done.
'I was very nervous in the first five or six legs. I know myself, I can relax now.'
Humphries set up a rematch of last year's final as he beat Nathan Aspinall in a gripping second semi-final.
The world number one, who is chasing his first Premier League title, beat Aspinall 10-7.
It is a fitting showpiece for the tournament as Littler and Humphries have been the standout players over the course of the 17 weeks.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Times
19 minutes ago
- Times
Arsenal expect to sign Eberechi Eze for £60m after hijacking of Spurs deal
Arsenal expect to sign Eberechi Eze for £60million having hijacked Tottenham Hotspur's all-but sealed deal for the England midfielder after learning that Kai Havertz faces a spell on the sidelines. Tottenham had agreed personal terms and the same transfer fee as Arsenal to sign the Crystal Palace player. However, the 27-year-old indicated that he wanted to move to Arsenal after the club made an approach for him on Wednesday afternoon. Arsenal have met his personal terms. Spurs had been trying to finalise the deal since the weekend but the transfer was held up because Palace wanted him to play against Norwegian side Fredrikstad in the Conference League play-off, first leg, on Thursday. Palace have been trying to sign reinforcements to enable them to sell Eze. Arsenal's late move to sign Eze indicates that Havertz may be out for a lengthy period after he suffered a knee issue in the 1-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday. Arsenal have not revealed the severity of the injury and are waiting for it to settle before assessing it properly. Arsenal had cooled their initial interest in Eze over the past fortnight, which opened the door for Tottenham to resurrect a move for him last week. Thomas Frank had listed Eze as one of two attacking midfielders required after James Maddison suffered a serious knee injury that will rule him out for most of the season, Son Heung-min left to join Los Angeles FC and a proposed deal to sign Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest collapsed. Tottenham were interested in Savinho but did not want to pay Manchester City's £67million valuation. Spurs have been interested in Morgan Rogers, of Aston Villa, and Yoane Wissa, who has been expected to leave Brentford for Newcastle United. Arsenal will be worried about the absence of Havertz given the lengthy injuries that dogged him last season. Havertz, 26, had a muscular injury that sidelined him from the 3-2 defeat by Villarreal two weeks ago in the Emirates Cup, although he returned as a substitute and scored against Athletic Bilbao three days later. He came on for the final 30 minutes at Old Trafford, replacing the new signing Viktor Gyokeres, who is the club's only fit, frontline striker, with Gabriel Jesus also injured. Havertz, who has scored 29 goals in 88 games since joining Arsenal from Chelsea in 2023, was the club's centre forward for most of last season. Arsenal have used Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Mikel Merino as makeshift forwards. But even before Havertz's injury, Arsenal had been looking for an attacker — namely a left winger if Trossard left this summer. However, Trossard, 30, has signed an improved deal at Arsenal, although it is still due to expire in 2027, and he has attracted interest from clubs in the Premier League and abroad. Havertz was not part of an open training session at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, joining Ben White and Christian Norgaard on the sidelines. White started at right back at Old Trafford and was replaced by Jurriën Timber with 19 minutes left. The nature of White's issue is not known, although the right back was training on an individual programme on Wednesday. Norgaard, the midfielder signed from Brentford this summer, was absent at Old Trafford. Arsenal have spent nearly £200million on six players this summer and want to offload a number of players. They include Fábio Vieira, who has interest from Stuttgart among other clubs, Reiss Nelson, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, and Albert Sambi Lokonga. Eze has two years remaining on his contract with Palace. They signed him from Queens Park Rangers in 2020 for a fee worth up to £19.5 million. QPR are believed to be due 15 per cent of any profit that Palace make on the sale.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Downing tools: the Premier League's most infamous attempted forced exits
Following Alexander Isak's decision to post an incendiary message on Instagram as part of his increasingly bitter attempt to force an exit from Newcastle, we look at how some others Premier League players have tried to inflict bitter breakups on their employers. Some were successful, some were not. Van Hooijdonk led Nottingham Forest to Premier League promotion in 1997-98 by scoring 29 goals in 42 league games. Yet where there should have subsequently been optimism, things soured as the Netherlands striker became increasingly upset with the club's inability to strengthen in the market, while also selling key players in Kevin Campbell and Colin Cooper. He returned to the Netherlands in August after a transfer request was turned down, going on strike to display his irritation. Van Hooijdonk stayed fit by training with his former club NAC Breda, eventually returning to the City Ground in November to end the standoff. Forest finished bottom, were relegated and did not return to the Premier League for 23 years. Chelsea released a statement claiming Gallas had threatened to score own goals if was selected for the 2006-07 season opener against Manchester City and refused to play in an FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool as part of his attempts to leave the club, which he ultimately did on deadline day in September 2006, sealing a move to Arsenal. The Frenchman denied Chelsea's accusations, saying: 'If people want to hide behind false accusations in order to give a reason for why I left so they can calm down the club's supporters then they can.' Whatever the case, the defender got his way, with his switch to the Emirates allowing Ashley Cole to travel in the opposite direction. Berbatov wanted to live his 'dream' of moving to Manchester United, but there was a problem: Tottenham did not want to sell him. Juande Ramos, the Spurs manager, called in Berbatov for a meeting to discuss the Bulgarian's future and it resulted with him being left out of the squad for a 2-1 defeat by Sunderland in August 2008. Ramos said the striker was not 'focused enough' and would not 'be good for the dressing room and the team effort'. Berbatov eventually got his way and a £31m deal was agreed with United, allowing him to make his much-desired move to Old Trafford on deadline day. The problems for Manchester City began when Tevez did not fancy warming up in a Champions League game at Bayern Munich in September 2011, subsequently feeling the full wrath of the manager, Roberto Mancini, who had no hesitation in declaring the Argentinian 'finished' at the club. The two had never been close but the spat ended the relationship for good, with fuel thrown on to the bonfire by Tevez's agent. 'What is he apologising for?' Kia Joorabchian asked. 'It's almost like a false: 'I'm sorry.' He doesn't believe, deep down, that he did anything wrong.' Tevez's elected sabbatical in Argentina cost him £9.3m. In February he came back and apologised after a move to one of Milan, Inter and Paris Saint-Germain failed to materialise. Sometimes it is best to take the route-one approach, unless, that is, there are TV cameras around and your desired transfer does not go through. Few will forget the sight of Odemwingie parked outside Loftus Road as he tried to seal a move from West Brom to QPR on deadline day in 2013. The Nigerian assumed a deal had been agreed but, unfortunately for him, that was not the case, leaving him with little else to do but chat with Sky Sports News via the window of his car before eventually driving back to the Midlands. 'It was hard because I was angry and it was a really tough period to go through,' Odemwingie said as he recounted the incident to the Guardian in 2024. 'It was very embarrassing in many ways.' Berahino was hot property after scoring an impressive 20 goals for West Brom in the 2014-15 season. Mauricio Pochettino was desperate to bring the striker to Tottenham and two offers were made, both subsequently turned down by West Brom's chairman Jeremy Peace. Berahino reacted by tweeting he would never play for Peace again before going on strike. He was clearly desperate to join Spurs, but his furious attempts at doing so did not work. West Brom, and Peace in particular, dug in, and the player remained where he was, eventually moving to Stoke in 2017. The 32-year-old is currently unattached after a spell in Slovenia with Tabor Sezana. Any interest, Thomas Frank? Payet is proof that downing tools can speed up a player's exit. The Frenchman wanted to leave West Ham in January 2017 in order to complete a move to Marseille, so stopped coming to training and refused to play for a club where he had been the undoubted star during the previous season. Payet's teammates did not like his attitude, so kicked him out of their WhatsApp group, while Slaven Bilic, West Ham's manager at the time, made it clear that Payet was still part of his plans. 'We do not want to sell him,' he said. 'We have said hundreds of times that we do not want to sell our best players. We want to keep them.' None of that made a difference, with Payet sealing a £25m transfer to the south of France at the end of the month. They say you should never go back, and that proved to be the case following Ronaldo's surprise return to Old Trafford in 2021. Quite simply, the move was a disaster, with the Portuguese superstar simply not the player he once was. Going on to suffer an almighty fallout with Erik ten Hag was another problem. He left the stadium after being substituted in a pre-season friendly against Rayo Vallecano, twice refused to go on before walking down the tunnel in a match against Tottenham and then sat down to do that interview with Piers Morgan, in which he claimed to have been 'betrayed' by the club. There was no way back after that and Ronaldo soon joined the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr, where he remains to this day, happier and much, much richer.


Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Oliver Glasner: I owe Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze nothing for giving 100%
Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace do not owe Eberechi Eze and Marc Guéhi any gratitude for continuing to perform for the team amid links with other clubs. The transfer of Eze to Tottenham Hotspur is reportedly nearing completion, while Guéhi, the Palace club captain, is a target for Liverpool. Both players started Palace's 0-0 draw against Chelsea on Sunday, in contrast to Newcastle United's Alexander Isak and Brentford's Yoane Wissa, who were both left out of their club's matchday squads as they try to force through their own moves. Eze, 27, and Guéhi, 25, have won praise for their professionalism, but Glasner, who suggested that the pair would start the first leg of Palace's Conference League play-off against the Norwegian side Fredrikstad at Selhurst Park on Thursday night, said their commitment shouldn't be seen as anything out of the ordinary. 'If we all have to be pleased that a player gives 100 per cent, there's something going wrong,' the Palace manager said. 'It should be the opposite: if a player signs a contract, he should stick to the contract. So I think it's not that we have to say 'thank you' every day that the player gives 100 per cent; this is what we can expect. 'I think it's also the right of the club and the duty of the player to give 100 per cent as long as he's under contract. 'Many of you were surprised [Eze] and Marc started against Chelsea. Most of you will be surprised that they will start again tomorrow, but they are committed to the team, and they will play a crucial part for as long as they are here.' Asked if Eze deserved credit for blocking out the outside noise, Glasner replied: 'It's more difficult for me, honestly, because I have to speak to you [the media].' Glasner also took the opportunity to clarify an incident after the game at Stamford Bridge where Guéhi appeared to ignore him as he headed down the tunnel, suggesting that the England centre back was simply wrapped up in his own disappointment after the result. 'In my career I didn't find many other people who are as ambitious as me, or even maybe more ambitious, [but] Marc is one of these guys,' he said. 'He was upset that we didn't win the game. It was reported in quite a negative way, but I see it completely the opposite. 'To me, it's the best sign Marc could show [of] how ambitious we all are. It shows the development of Crystal Palace in the last one or two years that everybody is not pleased to just get a draw at Chelsea if we can win.' Europa Conference League play-off, first legThursday 8pmTV Channel 5