Make no mistake, snooker’s Champion of Champions (live on ITV4, November 11-17) is one of the biggest events on the calendar, and the roll of honour confirms this tournament has year on year been won by the sport's very biggest players.

The list of past winners is littered with star names, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s four wins being the most, while Mark Allen is this year's defending champion having claimed the title 12 months ago as well as in 2020. In the last decade, there have also been victories for John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson and Judd Trump.

The latter heads the market this time around, around the 7/2 mark, having scooped two big prizes already this term, along with reaching two more high-profile finals, and Trump maintained his remarkable level of consistency with another solid run at the International Championship last week. We shouldn't forget that he was also runner-up here in Bolton last year.

Trump is sure to have his supporters again, but starting off against International Championship hero Ding Junhui is a tough opening draw, before a possible clash with Ali Carter or Neil Robertson to progress from Group Two. He’ll certainly need to earn his place in the semi-finals.

One could argue that O’Sullivan should start as outsider of the quartet in Group Four, with the red-hot Xiao Guodong up first and either old foe Mark Selby or Shaun Murphy to follow.

O’Sullivan’s form just doesn’t look there right now, for all there was no disgrace in losing to Pang Junxu last week, while Xiao and Selby have both won tournaments already this season.

In fact, Xiao might just prove the value to get out of the group, and anything in the region of 5/1 would seem fair enough.

Crucible King Kyren tough to oppose

Xiao doesn’t, however, make the staking plan, which is headed by world champion KYREN WILSON.

Wilson really ought to have had his hands on this trophy when losing to O’Sullivan in a deciding frame to the 2018 final that still lives long in the memory. It was a harsh lesson for Wilson who, having mounted a brilliant fightback, let O’Sullivan off the hook with the winning line in sight.

It’s my personal opinion that it took Wilson a while to recover from that defeat, for all ranking title wins still came along for this very fine all-round player. In the very biggest events, Wilson wasn’t quite able to bridge that gap between high-class and top-class, and he again lost to O’Sullivan in the final of the World Championship in 2020.

But since last spring, when Wilson roared to his maiden world title at the Crucible, the 32-year-old has looked a different animal – an even better player. He beat Trump in the final of the Xi'an Grand Prix and then trounced the same opponent – the world number one no less – in a demolition job in the Northern Ireland Open final.

It was a brutal, fearless display, and as Neal Foulds noted in his latest column, there was a real swagger about Wilson in that match. He clearly feels close to invincible at present, but to do that in a big match against Trump really does speak volumes.

A feature of Wilson’s play this season has been his heavy scoring. He’s always made big breaks, but his cue-ball control – which did need to tighten up – has been immaculate and he’s already up to 29 centuries this term. He managed a very healthy 76 last season, but is on track to beat that number this time around given we are still only in early November.