- Michael van Gerwen has yet to drop a set
- Scott Williams' 47 percent checkout success is the second highest of the quarter-finalists
- Recommended bet: Michael van Gerwen to win 5-0

Michael van Gerwen and Scott Williams kick off the evening session on New Year's Day at Alexandra Palace with most observers predicting a routine triumph for the Dutch three-time champion.

Van Gerwen has looked imperious so far with three whitewash successes over Keane Barry, Richard Veenstra and the in-form Stephen Bunting.

But he will be wary of underdog Williams, who is riding a wave in North London, has the crowd behind him in just his second World Championship appearance and has already toppled three seeded players. 

The stats

Van Gerwen has only dropped 12 legs in three matches in which he has yet to lose a set.

The Green Machine boasts the highest checkout percentage – 54 – of the eight quarter-finalists.

In eight previous quarter-finals, MVG has lost just once.

At 93.15, Williams boasts the lowest scoring average of the eight quarter-finalists.

These two have met once before competitively, a Players Championship match in September which Van Gerwen won 6-2.

Prediction

Van Gerwen must be sensing this is his chance to finally end his wait for a fourth world crown, and do not expect him to slip up against unseeded Williams.

MVG has seen big dangers of the calibre of Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson come unstuck on the road to Ally Pally gold while he has serenely breezed into the last eight without dropping a set.

Four years after Mighty Mike last reached a semi-final in the biggest tournament of them all, back him to get there again this year – and to do it in style.

Van Gerwen has not put a dart wrong en route to this stage, battering Keane Barry, Richard Veenstra and Stephen Bunting without dropping so much as a set. Indeed, he has played 11 sets and only been taken to a deciding leg in three of them, so superior has he been to his trio of classy opponents.

Williams insists it is only another darts match and it is that relaxed demeanour that seems to have helped him produce his best darts on the biggest, most demanding stage of them all.

We saw last year when Shaggy, on debut, threw in a 100-plus average beating Ryan Joyce, that there was plenty of talent in the throwing arm of the Lincolnshire arrowsmith, and he has never been short of confidence.

His great strength has been his finishing – he has produced a higher checkout percentage than each of his four victims, starting with 63 percent against Haruki Muramatsu.

And having gone on to beat the seventh seed Danny Noppert, 26th seed Martin Schindler and 10th seed Damon Heta, he fears no one.

However, his slips that were not punished by Heta, especially, will be marched all over by Van Gerwen and it is very hard to see how the Englishman can land a blow over nine sets.

Back Van Gerwen to win 5-0 at 10/3 with LiveScore Bet