Michael van Gerwen aims brutal dig at Luke Littler after denying him Premier League hat-trick

Michael van Gerwen aimed a savage dig at Luke Littler after stopping him from making it three Premier League wins in a row.

On Thursday the eleventh night of the Premier League darts took place in Birmingham and Littler made it to the final.

He beat Rob Cross and world champion Luke Humphries to set up a showdown with Van Gerwen, who knocked off Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith in the previous rounds.

Littler, making his debut in the competition off the back of his incredible run in the PDC world darts championship, was eyeing up a record-equalling third consecutive victory.

The Warrington teenager prevailed in both Manchester and Belfast but slipped to a 6-3 loss to 'Mighty Mike'.

Littler remains top of the Premier League table on 26 points, with Van Gerwen sitting in third - four points behind the man he beat.

Image: Getty

But the three-time world champion gave an extremely honest take on how the final went down.

Asked by Sports Boom about Littler being on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Van Gerwen replied: "But he didn't win anything? That's the worst thing!

"When people don't win anything they can get into Forbes! What he's done and created for the sports of darts is phenomenal but with all due respect he played crap tonight!

"I beat him in a crap game! That's the reality of the moment. I'm happy with that and we need to move on to the next one."

The next night takes place in Rotterdam next week and as well as mocking Liverpool for their 3-0 defeat to Atalanta, Littler vowed to go again.

"Disappointed to not get win #3 after making the final but more points and still top," he wrote on social media.

"We go after it again next week in Rotterdam."