A wedding invitation for Mark means some Fantasy Football Scout-style rotation this weekend, leaving tonight‘s “Knee Jerk” article in my hands. With the more casual tone of these articles affording a less formal approach than normal, allow me the luxury of changing out of the typical news-desk-shirt-and-tie-attire while slipping on a shell suit instead (all-white is high fashion here in the west of Scotland. Trust me on this).

Rotation and/or rest was very much the order of the day; I’m sure the announcement of certain team sheets had many of us cursing this afternoon and early evening. Resultantly, many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers will be looking to subs benches to boost points tallies, though some of us, unfortunately, now have the misfortune of Aston Villa defenders coming in.

First to pull a fast one was Carlo Ancelotti, benching Didier Drogba after assuring us all his star centre-forward was fit and raring to go. Chelsea then proceeded to hit Villa for seven, with many of us managers ruing the points haul Drogba would surely have grabbed.

Up stepped Frank Lampard with an astonishing four goals, in a performance that saw him reclaim top spot as FPL points scorer. Despite recent criticisms over his performances, he now has beaten his best-ever FPL score, with six games to spare. No doubt managers with Lamps in their teams have experienced a nice little jump in the overall rankings.

That’s five goals for Frank and twelve goals for Chelsea in two league games now, and as Ray Wilkins admitted this evening, it’s down to a new tactical variant introduced to allow Lampard more space. Let’s see how it works at Old Trafford next weekend, though.

Florent Malouda also continued his great recent form, adding two goals and an assist to his brace against Portsmouth midweek, as Chelsea confirmed Martin O’Neill’s recent claims of tiredness in his team by putting paid to their unbeaten 2010 league run in emphatic fashion. The idea of Villa’s defence as must-haves is already a horrible, distant memory..

Then came this evening’s stunner; after firm assurances over the fitness of Wayne Rooney, Fergie shocked us all by omitting Wazza completely from the Man United squad. Citing the importance of their upcoming Bayern-Chelsea-Bayern fixtures, the United boss decided playing his main man with a bruised foot was not worth the risk for the visit to The Reebok. As Bolton so ably demonstrated, when your opponents are so adept at scoring goals for you, why take a chance? Admittedly, Dimitar Berbatov didn’t do too badly either…

Arsene Wenger got in on the act too, starting with Samir Nasri and Andrei Arshavin on the subs bench for Arsenal’s trip to St Andrews, with next week’s Champions League tie against Barcelona undoubtedly on his mind. Arsenal attacking edge was definitely blunted as a result, and Nicklas Bendtner had his first game without a goal or assist in six weeks.

With a good few teams still either in European or domestic cup competition and subsequently prone to changes, perhaps a safe best is looking to those with only league ambitions on their minds.

One such example is Hull and Jimmy Bullard, who is still only at £5.4m in FPL. A recent addition to the Watchlist, Bullard’s set-piece duties ensure he is integral to Hull’s chances of survival, and the shampoo model responded with a penalty in the vital win over Fulham. With four home games and a Double Gameweek still to come, Hull could well be worth investing in, as Iain Dowie’s home debut also saw the club pick up their first clean sheet at the KC Stadium since December. A bargain defender today was Steven Mouyokolo; at just £3.8m, he not only picked up a clean sheet, but outdid Jimmy with three Bonus Points, too. Their next four game weeks read (stk, BUR, bir & AVL, SUN).

Stoke, another team with an upcoming Double Gameweek, also chalked up a clean sheet as they went about hammering (no pun intended) another nail in Gianfranco Zola‘s West Ham coffin. The next three weeks are particularly kind for Tony Pulis’ side, with fixtures reading (HUL, wlv & ful, BOL). Two clean sheets in their last three games should see further investment in the Stoke back line in the next week or so.

Everton showed they are currently the team to invest in for defenders, as David Moyes’ men chalked up a third consecutive clean sheet in a nil-nil draw at Molineux. With Mikel Arteta missing out with a slight groin strain, David Moyes’ men lacked that creative spark in the middle of the pitch which has been so crucial to their recent performances. Arteta is expected to return next week though, and with West Ham up next at Goodison, should see them back amongst the goals again.

With seven of the weekend’s matches now done and dusted, there’s still the likes of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Carlos Tevez and David Dunn with favourable fixtures to save your gameweek. However, if you’ve already got Lampard, best not go rubbing it in…