Although his average finally dipped under 100, ending up at 99.88 thanks to a host of missed doubles in the final leg, the 15-time world champion was never troubled as he went three points clear at the league summit.

Defending champion Anderson, who began the night one point behind Taylor in the standings, made a promising start but soon let the match get away from him.

The first two legs were shared before Taylor hit a 171 and took out double three to win the third, with the Stoke thrower then landing the first break in the fourth leg.

From there on it was plain sailing, Taylor nailing a checkout of 107 in the eighth leg to break his opponent's throw for the third time and secure at least a point, before completing victory in the next leg.

"It was a little bit (easy). I thought I better kick in hard against Gary because Gary can play. But he just didn't seem to click at all, he was struggling," Taylor told Sky Sports after his win.

Pleased

Although he was quite a way down on his record-breaking average of 117.35 against Simon Whitlock last week, he was pleased to rack up his third straight win in the competition.

He added: "You play the player, whoever you play if they start coming out and hitting scores, you've got to hit back.

"There are only two players there, you can't ask (someone) to help you out like in football or rugby, you've got to stand there and do it yourself."

At the other end of the table, double world champion Adrian Lewis continued his miserable start to the Premier League campaign as he was defeated 8-4 by Simon Whitlock.

Whitlock signalled his intent by taking out 118 in the first leg, but Lewis was able to hang with him for the first half of a match that contained a total of 15 180s.

However, the Australian began to pull away after breaking Lewis' throw in the eighth leg and in the end enjoyed an easy win to move into the top four, while Lewis fell to last place.

Wade wins

Elsewhere, James Wade moved off the foot of the table after claiming an 8-6 victory over Raymond van Barneveld.

Wade looked to be heading for a comfortable victory as he moved 6-1 ahead, with an 11-darter in the seventh leg following checkouts of 110 and 154 in the fifth and sixth respectively.

Van Barneveld then mounted a spirited comeback to leave himself with a chance of salvaging a draw, but Wade held his nerve to round out the win in the 14th leg.

In the opening match of the night, World Championship runner-up Andy Hamilton peppered the trebles early on but still slumped to an 8-5 defeat at the hands of Kevin Painter.

Painter came back from 4-2 down to draw level and then took the lead thanks to a 110 checkout, before a timely maximum set him up to win the 10th leg against the throw with an 11-darter.

The spirit of 'The Hammer' was broken and Painter dropped just one more leg as he went on to complete what was ultimately a comfortable victory.