Luke Littler warned ‘it’s not working for him’ as pressure mounts on darts star after Premier League start

Luke Littler Warned ‘It’s Not Working for Him’ as Pressure Mounts on Darts Star After Premier League Start

Three weeks into the 2026 BetMGM Premier League season and a question nobody expected to be asking quite so soon is already doing the rounds: where is Luke Littler’s best?

The back-to-back world champion and world number one was handed a bye into the semi-finals of Night Three in Glasgow after Michael van Gerwen’s withdrawal through illness — a free passage that might have offered a timely platform to get his season moving. Instead, Littler ran into a red-hot Jonny Clayton and was dismantled 6-1, leaving him without a single nightly victory through the opening three weeks and sitting on just four points.

It was enough for Sky Sports Darts analyst Wayne Mardle to sound a note of warning. “I didn’t think I’d be saying it so soon, that there’s a tiny bit of pressure on Luke Littler,” Mardle said. “Not to go and win the night but win and feel better, because he’s not playing anywhere near his normal standard. It’s a real small sample but he’s not playing to his 105/106 average, which seemingly he can do on his head. It’s not working for him, it’s not going his way. Against Jonny he’s playing a man that doesn’t fear him — it’s a big game for Luke Littler.”

The detail about fear is telling. Part of what has made Littler so dominant over the past two years is the psychological weight his opponents carry before a dart is thrown. Clayton, a seasoned professional with a Premier League title of his own, has never been the type to be overawed by occasion or reputation — and on Thursday night in Glasgow he showed exactly why. He opened his evening by ending a three-year losing streak against Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals, then dismantled Littler in the semis, and completed a flawless night by out-classing Gian van Veen 6-2 in the final with a brilliant 156 checkout to close it out.

Laura Turner, also on Sky Sports Darts, echoed the wider sentiment about Littler. “The Premier League hasn’t been up there with the levels we expect of Luke Littler,” she said. “We are waiting for him to go boom.”

That boom has not yet arrived. Littler clinched his second consecutive World Darts Championship crown in January with victory over Van Veen at Alexandra Palace, and there is no reason to believe he is suddenly a diminished player. But the Premier League has its own particular rhythms and demands — tight, best-of-eleven-leg formats that punish any lapse in scoring or finishing — and so far the tournament has not brought out the Littler that averaged 105 and 106 for fun on the world stage.

The added complication in Glasgow was the extended wait backstage before his semi-final. Van Gerwen’s withdrawal had already disrupted the rhythm of the night, and Littler’s bye through the quarter-finals left him waiting for Clayton to finish his own match before they could meet. Whether that disrupted his preparation or simply gave him more time to think is hard to say, but the result was stark either way.

The broader picture is not yet alarming. Four points from three nights is not a catastrophic return, and the Premier League runs until Finals Night at The O2 in London on May 28 — there is significant time to correct course. But Littler will know better than anyone that the window to establish an early stranglehold at the top of the table is closing with each passing Thursday, and rivals like Van Gerwen and Price — once fit and back at the oche — will not be handing out free points.

He heads into this weekend’s Poland Darts Open in Kraków as the top seed and firm favourite, where he faces either Mike De Decker or Marvin Kraft in the second round. A run deep into the draw, and the kind of averaging that reminds everyone of his class, would do more than any words to answer those mounting questions.