ROD HARRINGTON is predicting a Phil Taylor double against Raymond van Barneveld when the pair clash in the Holsten Premier League Darts on Thursday.
The top two in the Premier League table will meet on the final league night of 2007 at Birmingham's NIA this week in front of over 4,500 fans.
Having seen van Barneveld take his Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship title in a final-leg thriller on 1 January, Taylor gained some revenge with an 8-6 win when the pair met in Sheffield two months ago.
With Taylor now back on top form - he has averaged over 100 in six of the eight games since then - the Sky Sports pundit thinks the defending Premier League champion will continue his march towards another title on Thursday.
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"Losing the World Championship final upset Phil and I think he tried to change too many things because he thought there was a problem with his game when there wasn't," Harrington told PlanetDarts.tv.
"He changed his darts, lost weight and tried to get himself fit. I think the fitness and losing weight was good, but changing his darts was wrong.
"He has gone back to his old darts now and is now really on form. I can't see Barneveld beating him on Thursday."
When the pair last met, at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, Taylor came from 5-1 down to win 8-6 in a thriller.
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"That is probably the finest display of darts I have seen from Taylor," said Harrington.
"I've seen some great performances but to come back from 5-1 down, against Barneveld, on a big stage is incredible.
"It sends a message out to the other players too, who at 5-1 down give up.
"A lot of players think they can't win from there, but Taylor didn't and there are games like that which you nick that can put you on the road to a good year.
"I think it's done that for Taylor. That one match has turned his year completely around and I think he could go on to win most of the tournaments this year."
Harrington, a double World Matchplay champion, feels van Barneveld has been too inconsistent during the 2007 Premier League campaign - winning only seven of his 13 matches so far.
"Barney has been indifferent," said Harrington. "Some of the stages are very hot and in the big arenas he seems to have played very well, perhaps because it wasn't as hot.
"But in venues like Blackpool and Reading, where it got very hot on stage, he didn't cope with it too well.
"I think the first two or three legs on Thursday are crucial - if Barneveld doesn't get into the game we could see perhaps an 8-3, 8-4 but if he can start well it could be an 8-6 game again."
Harrington believes that Taylor and van Barneveld are taking the standard of darts to a new high.
"It was a great thing when Barneveld joined the PDC," he said.
"He is a good player but what a lot of other players didn't do at that time is grasp the nettle and say 'They're going to push each other now and we have got to keep up with them'.
"The wrong attitude in some players has caused their form to drop off, but Barneveld and Taylor are forgetting about most other players and just worrying about themselves.
"That is taking the standard higher and that is automatically beating everybody else at the moment.
"That will carry on unless the other players do something about it."
Harrington also manages world number three Colin Lloyd, the runner-up in the 2005 Premier League who will miss out on a play-off place this time around.
Lloyd lost six of his first seven matches but has taken four wins in his last six games, including a victory over van Barneveld and last week's 8-0 defeat of Terry Jenkins - the first whitewash in Premier League history.
"We're very disappointed," added Harrington. "Perhaps his attitude wasn't right in the first four or five games and that has cost him.
"Last year, Roland Scholten put the points on the board early and Dennis Priestley has this time.
"If Colin had turned one of those early games around, perhaps even the first week against Peter Manley when he lost 8-6.
"Now he is playing really well but it's too late. Hopefully he'll have another good performance against Dennis Priestley and it will set the rest of the year up.
"There is still a great deal to go for in the rest of 2007."