Michael van Gerwen eliminated from Premier League Darts as Nathan Aspinall gets last laugh

Michael van Gerwen has been dumped out of Premier League Darts after failing to make the play-offs for only the second time in his career. 'Mighty Mike' won five of his first seven appearances in the competition and had made it to finals night in 11 of the previous 12 years, but a disastrous 2025 campaign has seen him shockingly fall short.

Van Gerwen arrived in Sheffield for Night 16 of this season's gruelling competition knowing that nothing less than a nightly win would get him to The O2 next week. But that was always going to be a tough ask given his patchy form since the turn of the year.

And it will sting that little bit more to go out on a defeat to Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals following their recent back-and-forth. 'The Asp' said he had Van Gerwen 'in his pocket' after beating him in Aberdeen last week.

MVG laughed those comments off on Wednesday, when he responded: "What's the overall record? It's really easy to beat someone three times in a row in this format. It's not the hardest thing in the world."

Unfortunately for Van Gerwen, Aspinall made it four head-to-head Premier League victories in a row by dominating him 6-2 in Sheffield. The Dutchman fetching long odds at the start of the night to get the overall win he needed is perhaps a sign of the times.

Van Gerwen has not won a single Premier League Darts night all season, and even if he got past Aspinall, he would have come up against a rampant Luke Littler in the semi-finals.

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