After Hogmanay came Clogmanay - and Michael van Gerwen was never going to let the party fall flat.

Easing into his seventh PDC World Championship final with a brutal 6-1 demolition of outclassed Chris Dobey, MVG needed just 49 minutes to seal his place in Friday's showpiece. From the first dart, Van Gerwen looked like a man in a hurry to end his six-year wait for a fourth title.

And in the pantheon of Dutch masters, he will be up there with Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Erik ten Hag if he lifts the Sid Waddell Trophy again at Alexandra Palace. Only (16) and compatriot Raymond van Barneveld (five) had won more titles than Clog Almighty.

No wonder his excitement got the better of him and he turned the air blue in his post-match TV interview. Van Gerwen blurted: “We are not even close to winning (a fourth title) yet. The target is still far away - I’m only in the final but I’ve won f*** all yet, so I need to make sure I do it in the final.

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“This is my passion, this is my life, and I really enjoyed it tonight.” Van Gerwen is likely to be fined by the Darts Regulation Authority for his indiscretion. But any financial penalty would only make a small dent in the winner’s £500,000 jackpot if he lands a fourth title.

Since the last of his three world titles six years ago, Van Gerwen has invented an exotic range of ways to leave Ally Pally with regrets. He was well-beaten by Peter Wright in the final five years ago, followed by a shock 5-0 whitewash by Dave Chisnall under lockdown after rushing back from Holland at to beat borders with Europe being sealed.

Then he withdrew from the tournament after testing positive for Covid - when others attending a fateful Christmas meal with Dutch were all-clear. In 2023, Michael Smith’s perfect leg in the final decorated Bully Boy’s maiden world title, and 12 months ago MVG’s rampaging form evaporated in an inexplicable quarter-final defeat by Scott Williams, with a lukewarm 93.41 average which was like finding Les Dawson playing Mozart’s moonlight sonata on the piano.

But any ‘baggage’ from recent disappointments at Ally Pally was never going to weigh down Van Gerwen. In 75 previous semi-finals in PDC majors, he had won 59 of them, and his stockpile of 157 titles (on stage and floor) dwarfed Dobey’s six.

And the gulf in big-match experience soon showed. Dobey has made huge strides since his days as a £6.70-an-hour motorway labourer putting out the cones for lane closures and contraflows, and his 5-3 defeat of Gerwyn Price in the last eight signalled his intent to move into the fast lane.

But when he missed three darts to take the second set, and give Van Gerwen something to think about, he missed the lot. And when MVG, beating his chest and gurning like the fearsome gargoyle of old, stepped in to go 2-0 up, the writing was not just on the wall. It appeared to be trailed in plumes of smoke across the Muswell Hill skyline.

A shock to the Dutchman’s system, when the Geordie underdog took out his fishing rod, cast his line and reeled in the ‘big fish’ 170 checkout, briefly gave Dobey a foothold in the contest. But if you give Van Gerwen a chance to bare his teeth, he’ll show you a full set of barbed wire braces after 18 months of punishing surgery on his jaw, and he soon managed to bite back.

As Dobey, 34, lost focus and his dream of a £500,000 payday in the final unravelled, the green machine was ruthless, relentless and remorseless. Van Gerwen’s scoring was by no means invincible, but Dobey fired only pop-gun pellets where he needed a 44 Magnum.