Glen Durrant has excelled in the new Unibet Premier League playing environment while Michael van Gerwen has struggled most, writes PDC stats analyst Christopher Kempf.
The nightly average of 101.96 recorded on Sunday, the fourth-highest in league play in the Premier League's history, was the culmination of an outstanding week of performances from the eight remaining competitors in the tournament.
Three players have averaged over 100 in the return to televised action in the Premier League, but Michael van Gerwen was not among them.
Despite a convincing win over Michael Smith on Sunday, MvG's stats have declined significantly both in real terms and in relation to his competitors.
Van Gerwen is averaging nearly three points less than he was in February and March, while nearly every other player has shown improvement in their averages.
While he remains third on the table, after losses to current top two Glen Durrant and Gary Anderson, his seven-year dominance of the round-robin stages is likely coming to an end.
Durrant and Anderson have risen to the top of the table through a huge improvement of six points in their averages, allowing them to win four out of six matches last week.
One of Anderson's weaknesses in the early stages of the competition was his finishing, but he has rectified that by improving his accuracy on doubles from 36% in the winter to 43% in the past six nights of Premier League action.
Similarly, Durrant has more than doubled his low 171-180 rate - a blemish on his Nights 1-6 record - allowing the three-time Lakeside Champion to surpass the Van Gerwen in maximums scored per leg.
In spite of a similarly significant improvement (five point points) in his averages, Peter Wright has secured few Premier League points to show for it.
His 107+ average and nine-dart finish in his last two matches resulted in painful 6-8 losses, pushing the reigning World Champion down to sixth place and out of qualifying position for the semi-finals, belying his league-leading 102.19 average across Nights 7-12.
Michael Smith is simultaneously pumping out maximum scores at an unprecedented rate (0.543 per leg played) and hitting fewer doubles than any of his colleagues (fewer than one for every three attempts).
The importance of doubles to winning matches is thus reflected in Smith's 2-4 record last week.
Gerwyn Price, having won four of his last five matches, is looking far more secure in his performances than he was six months ago, having boosted his averages by two points and his doubles percentage by two percent and having secured the aforementioned 8-6 defeat of Wright, possibly the most hard-fought win in the 2020 Premier League.
Tonight he plays Nathan Aspinall, the only player to have defeated Durrant thus far in 2020, with whom he is currently tied on points.
Aspinall's qualification for the Play-Offs remains on a knife edge after losses to top-four players Anderson and Van Gerwen, and his six-point decline in doubles percentage from March to August could raise concerns with an impending rematch with Durrant on the cards this weekend.
Even after 12 nights played, there are still seven players with at least a plausible path to The O2; and the recent changes in statistical performance suggest that some of the players currently in position to qualify may no longer be on top in four nights' time.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @ochepedia.
Live coverage of Unibet Premier League Night 13 will be shown on Sky Sports, as well as through the PDC's international broadcast partners including RTL7 and DAZN and for PDCTV Rest of the World Subscribers.
Night 13
Wednesday September 2 (1900 BST)
Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes - behind closed doors
Glen Durrant v Michael Smith
Daryl Gurney v Gary Anderson
Peter Wright v Michael van Gerwen
Gerwyn Price v Nathan Aspinall
