Mighty Mike starts joint-favourite for this year’s event with Luke Littler and looks the player to beat. He’s a three-time winner of the event having secured the title in 2015, 2016 and most recently 2020. He was runner-up to ‘Goldfinger’ Andrew Gilding last year and is a man to be feared.

At the time of writing – ahead of Night 5 in the Premier League – he’s won a hat-trick of nights in that event already, won the Dutch Darts Masters and finished runner-up in the Bahrain Darts Masters and the Cazoo Masters. He really is in tremendous fettle.

His form has been that good so far this season that he’s played 31 matches already and is yet to lose back-to-back games, in fact he’s only lost five games this campaign and he’s not really reached the levels we know he’s capable of.

MVG joins the party, like the other top 32 participants in Round Four. These matches are a race to ten legs so it would be a surprise to see him depart early, unless the draw works out unfavourably. That said, no matter who he comes up against you would imagine his opponents will be less happy about that particular matchup than van Gerwen would be.

‘The Flying Scotsman’ is rolling back the years and is building on last year’s upturn in performance even more in 2024. He’s played 17 matches so far in the Players Championship floor events, winning 14 and losing just three.

His highlight was winning the second event on that tour where he defeated Ryan Searle in the final after victories over the likes of Daryl Gurney, Raymond van Barneveld and his compatriot Peter Wright.

Across these matches it’s not just the winning that’s caught the eye, it’s the standard he’s playing. He’s averaged 100+ in 12of the 17 games he’s played and is averaging a staggering 103.64, the highest of all Tour Card holders currently for 2024.

He, too, is a former UK Open Champion, winning the event in 2018, defeating Corey Cadby in the final, in an event which was affected by Storm Emma and saw 11 players withdraw and was ultimately played behind closed doors as a result.

My only fear would be the gruelling nature of the event but these Pro Tour events are long days too and he’s winning those. His class alone can carry him a long way.

Our third and final selection is not as well fancied as our first two picks but is a live contender, nonetheless.

We alluded at the start of this preview to the fact that there have been some surprise winners the past two years and whilst ‘Heavy Metal’ wouldn’t fall into that category he probably wouldn’t be the first name on everyone’s lips given the strength in depth on the PDC circuit.

His form, however, has been remarkable on the floor in the four Players Championship events to date in 2024. He finished runner-up in the first two events to Luke Littler and Gary Anderson respectively but got his revenge on the latter by reversing the form and beating him in the final of Players Championship Three. Whilst he didn’t reach the final of the most recent event on this series he still managed to reach the Last 16 where he lost to Brendan Dolan despite averaging 109.45.

He comes into this event on the back of three straight 100+ averages, has registered four in his last six matches if you delve a bit deeper and is throwing with a real fluidity. All this has come after a surprise first round defeat to Dirk van Duijvenbode in the Cazoo Masters.