Darts sensation Luke Littler joked he is glad he beat Liverpool fan Stephen Bunting to the 2025 World Championship — because he wouldn't have wanted to see the Reds supporter parade the trophy around Anfield this weekend.

Littler beat Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in the PDC World Championship final to cap off an incredible 12 months in which he has become a household name in the UK. Littler admitted he had felt nervous after going 2-0 up in Friday's final but told himself to "just relax".

"I'm glad I beat Stephen yesterday because I'm pretty sure he was taking it to Anfield," Littler said with a smile during his post-match press conference. The 17-year-old from Warrington is a huge Manchester United fan.

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Liverpool faces Manchester United with a 23-point gap between the sides in the Premier League table. But Arne Slot was in no mood to take the fixture in any way lightly during his pre-match press conference.

"For me, I said it before the first fixture and I can say it one more time, they have much better players, in my opinion, than maybe the league table shows at the moment," he said. "It's maybe going to take a while for Ruben Amorim to bring this out of the players, I don't know, but they will definitely go up and they are much, much, much better than the league shows at the moment."

Liverpool.com says: Littler was celebrating on Friday but Reds fans will hope the shine is taken off his weekend come Sunday. Slot's side needs the three points to keep setting the pace at the top of the Premier League table and anything less than a convincing win would be an upset considering the form of each team.