at the German Darts Championship. Anderson recovered from 5–3 down to Justin Pipe in the final to win 6–5, surviving six match darts from his opponent in the process and said afterwards his goal for the year was to reclaim his ranking in the top eight. His good start to the year continued as he won the fifth UK Open Qualifier with a 6–2 defeat of Robert Thornton. At the UK Open itself he lost 9–7 to Ian White in the fifth round. Anderson's third title of the year came at the first Players Championship as he averaged 111.47 in beating Andrew Gilding 6–5 in a high quality final. Another tournament victory came a week later at the third event by edging out Phil Taylor 6–5, with Anderson describing afterwards that winning has become a habit again. Anderson received a Sky Sports wildcard to participate in the Premier League this year. He had a fantastic second half of the season to win five of his last seven matches, drawing the other two, to finish fourth in the table and qualify for the play-offs. Anderson played Van Gerwen in the semi-finals against whom he lost to 7–5 and beat 7–4 during the league stage. There was never more than a leg between the players throughout the whole match with Van Gerwen throwing for it in the deciding leg. He kicked off with a 171 and Anderson could only reply with 17 and went on to lose 8–7. With doubling so often the weakness in Anderson's game, he managed to hit 43% during the whole season this year, the third highest out of the ten players. In June he won his fifth title of the season at the 11th Players Championship with a 6–2 defeat of Thornton. At the World Matchplay, Anderson beat Jamie Caven 10–8 and Stephen Bunting 13–8 (whilst averaging 104.41) to progress past the second round for the first time in his sixth appearance in the event. In the quarter-finals he outplayed Adrian Lewis in winning 13–8 and was then involved in a high quality match against Phil Taylor in the semi-finals as both players averaged 105 which Anderson just lost 17–15. Anderson stated that the quality of his darts was beginning to scare other players again and his successful week took him back into the world's top 10. In September he averaged 115.62 in thrashing Lewis 6–0 in