Defending World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall admits 'jealous' darts stars want to bring Luke Littler 'down a peg or two' ahead of his blockbuster first round showdown with Michael van Gerwen

Defending World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall had admitted the sport's biggest stars are desperate to bring teenage sensation Luke Littler back down to earth as darts returns to Blackpool's Winter Gardens this weekend.

Littler burst onto the scene with his incredible run to the World Championship final at just 16 years of age at the turn of the year, and has since proved he is here to stay.

Over the past six months he has won titles in Bahrain, Belgium, Poland and Austria before claiming his biggest victory to date when the lifted the Premier League trophy in May.

Littler hit a nine-darter in the final against world champion Luke Humphries, capping off a dream start to his professional career.

He will now play in his first World Matchplay, and has been handed a stern test first up as he will take on three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen in the opening round.

Aspinall believes players have been 'trying too hard' to beat Littler ever since his breakthrough, but still remain as determined as ever to get one over the 17-year-old.   

'Luke's had a big target on his back since January 3, if I'm deadly honest with you,' Aspinall admitted to Mail Sport.

'I think the first few months when us boys were playing Luke, I think we were trying too hard to beat him to put him back in his place. We've all played him enough times now and I think we've all kind of settled with him now. 

'The stuff that he's doing and the people he's meeting, the sponsorship deals he's getting is stuff that we could probably only dream of. There's probably a bit of jealousy, but everyone wants to bring him down a peg or two. 

'It's a great game, him and Michael. It's good to have a couple of those games first round, obviously for the people watching at home and also the fans live. 

'But yeah, what a first round game. I think the only way it could have been better is if it was Luke v Luke (Humphries). I don't watch darts, but I think I'll be watching that one.'

Littler and Aspinall share the same manager and practiced together prior to the World Championship.

Aspinall, 32, could see Littler's potential from the start, but revealed even he was shocked by his meteoric rise.

'I knew how good he was beforehand. I was practicing with him a couple of days before the World Championship and the stuff he was doing on the practice board was obscene,' Aspinall explained.

'So I expected him to have a half-decent run, but make the final? No. The way that he handled himself, the way that he dealt with all the media, you've got to take your hat off to him because I think 95 per cent of seasoned pros couldn't have handled the media commitments he had to do in those couple of weeks as well as perform the way he did. 

'Fair play to him, he's carried it on, pretty much won everything this year, and hopefully he stops playing so well!'

Littler's emergence has coincided with darts becoming more popular than ever, with fans eager to see what he will do next on the oche.

Playing in front of sell-out arenas has become a common occurrence for Aspinall nowadays, but he denied that this should all be put down to Littler's arrival on the circuit.

'He's put a lot more eyes on the game that potentially didn't watch darts beforehand,' Aspinall conceded.

'I keep saying to people that there's more than Luke Littler in the game of darts. And people are being hooked to darts not because of Luke but because of the rest of us as well. 

'People started watching darts again because of Luke Littler, they start watching the Premier League, but then they get a buzz back. It's not a buzz from watching one game, it's the rest of us. 

'I think the way that the boys are performing on TV, to keep performing week in, week out at the standard we're doing under the pressure we're under, I think that's why darts is getting so big.' 

Aspinall romped to an 18-6 win over Jonny Clayton in last year's final, and has named the Matchplay as his favourite tournament on the darts calendar due to it being just 30 minutes from his home in Stockport.

Friends and family are due to be in attendance to support him when he gets his title defence underway against fellow English Luke Woodhouse, and Aspinall insists he can triumph in Blackpool if everything 'clicks' again like it did 12 months ago.

Winter Gardens has hosted the World Matchplay since 1994, but major sporting events in golf, boxing, Formula One and snooker have been taken over to Saudi Arabia in recent months and years, and former world champion Gerwyn Price has spoken out in favour of darts also heading over to the Middle East.

But Aspinall is adamant that darts will not work in Saudi, and feels choosing money over fans would have significant consequences.

Aspinall claimed: 'If darts moved over there, it wouldn't be darts. Sometimes, it's more than money. 

'I'm a massive snooker fan, and I watched that 167 tournament and it was dross. It was terrible. There was like 12 people in the audience. 

'The American Pool World Championships has just been there, it was like four people watching the final. So, OK, you go over there and you get more money. But in the same respect, us darts players love the atmosphere, the adrenaline. 

'If we walk out and it's 20 people there watching, it isn't going to be the same as 5,000 people at Winter Gardens. And we would then fall out of love with the game, in my opinion. 

'You don't know in 10, 20, 30 years, but certainly in the near future I can't see it going anywhere. And it shouldn't do either.'