{"id":957373,"date":"2026-05-13T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/957373\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T16:10:14","slug":"luke-littler-predicts-fireworks-in-chasing-premier-league-history-in-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/957373\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler predicts fireworks in chasing Premier League history in Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 eRQajs\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/luke-littler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luke Littler<\/a> has predicted fireworks as he chases <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/premier-league\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a> history in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/birmingham\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The back-to-back world champion is targeting a record seventh nightly victory on Thursday, having won the last three weeks in Liverpool, Aberdeen and Leeds to put himself five points clear at the top of the table.<\/p>\n<p>He can also secure a third top-placed finish in three years if he beats second-placed Jonny Clayton in the quarter-final in the Second City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve just got to keep going,\u201d\u00a0said Littler, who has recovered from a slow start to this year\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of confidence and now I can go chasing my own records within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the win against Jonny last week, I knew I was a few points clear. I\u2019ve just got to keep top spot now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it will be a very good game against Jonny. He will be wanting the win, I\u2019ll be wanting the win, so expect fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clayton is also guaranteed to be joining Littler at the O2 for the play-offs on May 28, but the remaining two spots are still up for grabs.<\/p>\n<p>Gerwyn Price and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/luke-humphries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luke Humphries<\/a> are in contention with two weeks of action to go.<\/p>\n<p>Price withdrew from last week\u2019s event in Leeds and faces Michael van Gerwen in a crunch quarter-final tie.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman is in form \u2013 having won a midweek Players Championship event in Leicester \u2013 and heads to Birmingham in bullish mood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in my own ability and I think I\u2019m playing some good darts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it was important after a long time that I managed to win a ProTour. It meant a lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love what I do and especially when I play like this, I love it even more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A run to last week\u2019s final puts Humphries in a good position and he opens against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/stephen-bunting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stephen Bunting<\/a>, whose hopes of qualifying are hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n<p>Gian van Veen takes on Josh Rock in the other quarter-final, with the Northern Irishman already eliminated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":957374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-957373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116568145599766174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}