As Michael van Gerwen prepares for his PDC World Championship opener on Saturday evening, the Green Machine says he is still the best player in the world at present. Watch all the action live on Sky Sports Darts.
Saturday 18 December 2021 16:49, UK
It has been a year to forget for Michael van Gerwen on the oche.
The three-time world champion has not won a major title in over 12 months; his longest drought since his breakthrough success at the 2012 Grand Prix.
Indeed, it is the first time since 2014 that he enters the World Championship not in the top seed position.
As he heads to Alexandra Palace this week, he is gunning to arrest the slide and collect the Sid Waddell Trophy to re-establish himself as the world's premier darts player.
But in his mind, he is still the best in the business.
"Of course. They (Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright) all know the answer anyway. But they won't say it," he said, when asked if he is the best in the world at present.
"[They know] it's all dependent on my form. If Michael plays his game, Michael is going to win the game. Simple as that. They won't say it, of course, if I was in their position, I wouldn't get it out of my mouth either. But it's fact."
Given his struggles over the past year, the 32-year-old says this world title would be the sweetest triumph of his career.
"Of course it would be. I've been through a really rough period, with a lot of things that didn't go my way. I think the changeover to Winmau took me a really long time, but now there are no more problems about that," he outlined.
"The coronavirus, no fans, I became a father again, they're all little distractions. Sometimes you don't have an answer to all of them. And you need to go back to basics and battle from there. That's exactly what I did.
"Sometimes when you have been so long at the top of your game like me, sometimes you can get a little bit too relaxed and take everything for granted. That's not the way it should be. I did that too much, but now I'm back on track, focused and that's really important."
And he feels his game is where it needs to be to claim the title on January 3.
"If you look to other people's way how they have played, their performances, I don't think they have played any better than me. So of course, yes, I think I can win it. Otherwise I wouldn't say that. My game is starting to get somewhere. And that's what I like to see. I feel comfortable.
"I'm looking forward to it. If you look at my last few months, the way how I played. It gave me a lot of confidence. And yeah, I'm looking forward to performing, especially with the crowds back again.
"I'm feeling good, and I feel fresh. I look forward to play."
And he is unconcerned by his position as the third seed.
"It doesn't really matter. It's just a number," he said.
"Look at Jonny Clayton. He won most of his tournaments this year, and it wasn't ranked. So it didn't really help him on the World Rankings. Otherwise he would be a lot higher seed!
"Things like that happen. You have to adjust yourself to the actual moment. The actual moment is that I'm playing some good darts, and I feel good about my game. From there on, I think I can do damage in this tournament."
Our coverage of the PDC World Championship continues on Saturday. Watch it live on Sky Sports Darts.
