Michael Van Gerwen moves joint top of Premier League with win over Jonny Clayton

Michael Van Gerwen moved level on points with Dimitri Van Den Bergh and Nathan Aspinall at the top of the Premier League following victory over Jonny Clayton.

Five-time champion Van Gerwen avenged the defeat suffered to Welshman Clayton on the final night of phase one of the competition by securing an 8-5 success in Milton Keynes.

Clayton claimed the first break of the match to lead 2-1 but a fired up Van Gerwen immediately hit back with brilliant 117 checkout and did not look back.

The Dutchman closed out victory in style by pinning the bull for a 124 finish to retain second spot, sandwiched between Aspinall and Van Den Bergh, who also have 15 points following their meeting earlier on Thursday evening.

Aspinall clung on to top spot on leg difference only after suffering an 8-6 defeat to his fellow high-flier.

Despite averaging a shade lower than his opponent’s 103.33, tournament debutant Van Den Bergh did enough to bounce back from being demolished 8-3 by Van Gerwen on Wednesday evening.

Elsewhere at the Marshall Arena, Gary Anderson averaged almost 105 as he despatched an out-of-sorts Peter Wright in the battle of the bottom two.

Two-time champion Anderson boosted his play-off hopes with a resounding 8-3 victory over his fellow World Cup-winning Scot.

Defeat for Wright leaves him propping up the table, albeit with five matches of phase two still to play, with Anderson leapfrogging him into seventh spot.

Earlier in the evening, James Wade mounted a stunning comeback to share the spoils with Jose De Sousa.

The 2009 winner looked set to slip to a second successive defeat after falling 6-2 behind.

But he rallied, and with the help of three 180s in the 11th leg, escaped with a 7-7 draw against the Portuguese.