Michael Van Gerwen has looked imperious in getting to this final and despite facing Michael Smith this evening , who many tipped to be his likely opponent in this showdown before the tournament started, there’s no reason to jump ship now.

He’s registered a 100+ average in all five matches he’s played to reach this stage including a 108.28 average in his 6-0 Semi-Final defeat of Dimitri Van Den Bergh last night. That was his third whitewash of the event after defeating Lewy Williams 3-0 and Chris Dobey 5-0 also.

What’s even more impressive is that when he was severely tested by Mensur Suljović in his second game, he rose to the occasion. He was pushed all the way by the Austrian but produced a stunning performance, averaging 107.66 and was always in relative control of that game.

There have been glimpses of what Michael Smith can produce, namely his defeats of Joe Cullen and Gabriel Clemens but there have been some games where he’s been off the pace. If he’s not on his ‘A’ game here, he’ll not get a look in.

Smith, twice a runner up in this, including last year will be hoping to go one better but Van Gerwen is already a three time champion, has been in ominous form this year winning more titles than anyone else, with ten and I can’t see past his dominance continuing here.

If Smith is to push MVG here then his maximum hitting will need to be on point. He broke the record for the event last year as runner-up by registering 83 throughout the tournament.

He now leads the way in that count again after last night’s Semi-Finals. He hit 19 against Gabriel Clemens to help him break the resistance of the German Giant and that now takes him up to 44 for the tournament. He won’t be beating his record this year but I can see him registering numerous tonight in a match that is now a race to seven sets.

MVG has hit 32 himself and could’ve had more but he has a tendency to switch. He hit another 13 scores of 171, 174 and 177 combined just showing how he likes to use the Treble 19 and Treble 18 segment if his dart isn’t sitting how he likes it in the treble 20. With all known evidence Smith should be on top on the maximum count this evening.

As a major winner this year his mindset is arguably in a stronger place now than it was in either of those previous matches. He faces MVG again however, who defeated him in 2019 who for large parts of this event has looked unplayable. Given I’ve tipped MVG to come out on top in my boosted double I think between these two score-lines in favour of the ‘Green Machine’ looks most likely so the first leg of the Bet Builder is over 10.5 sets.

Next up is the number of 180’s. In the final last year Michael Smith and Peter Wright shared 41 maximums with 24 from Smith. In the 2019 final between these two there was 27 with Smith chipping in with just 13 on that occasion. He’s better maximum hitter than ever at present so if MVG continues to chip in with the regularity he has through this event so far then the over 30.5 180 line should be breached with Smith being a superior 180 scorer.

Both these have registered a Big Fish finish throughout the event and although I’m not predicting that 170 finish will be checked out here, I can see the pace and flow of the game suiting both, they should be able to find their rhythm and checkouts could look effortless.

That will aide the finishing statistics, firstly three or more legs to be won on bullseye could be an achievable target. MVG notched his first bullseye finish of the event last night and Smith is now on four. In last year’s final there were three and when this pair met in 2019 there were five.

On the finishing aspect of the game I also expect both players to be able to chip in with a finish of 120+ each. Smith has four throughout this year’s Championship and Van Gerwen three. There will be numerous opportunities to achieve this in this long format game and in last years final the highest checkout by each player was 148 and 167 and in the previous final between these two the highest checkouts were 129 and 127. I expect this leg to be achieved comfortably.