Luke Littler posts brutal response after rival called him ‘not a good loser’

A war of words appears to have begun between darts' two best young players

Littler and van Veen faced off against each other in a Premier League clash in Manchester on Thursday, that saw the Littler miss three match darts before ultimately losing 6-5 to his rival.

Some questions had been raised over Littler's behaviour throughout the match-up, as he appeared to make a series of exasoperatrd hand gerstures towards van Veen, even making a crying eye gesture towards the crowd at one point in the night.

One individual who openly criticised Littler was his opponent.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, van Veen said: "I'm on 90 and miss double-15 on the inside, and then I see him cheering towards the crowd. I don't think that's normal.

"He's a fantastic darts player but today he showed he's not a good loser. Celebrating a miss from your opponent, that really annoys me.

"He was celebrating me missing double 15. That's out of order. I was fuming about that and he missed three darts at double seven.

"Then he looked at me like I was the problem. He is probably fuming.

"That's my perspective. His perspective is probably different.

"I love Luke to bits. All the attention he has brought to the sport is phenomenal, but today was my day."

Littler wasted no time whatsoever in responding, taking to Instagram to post a brutal reply.

Sharing a repost of van Veen's criticisms, Littler simply responded with three laughing emojis.