Ballooned shots, not-so happy slappings and some familiar faces being smiled upon by the Fantasy Premier League Bonus judges. These are just a few of the things that Sunday’s action brought to the fore, let’s take a look at what we garnered as gameweek three came to a close…

Jussi Jääskeläinen wrote himself out of hearts and minds of many Fantasy Managers, as we’ve already stated in Sunday afternoon’s knee jerk, with his impetous slap to Roger Johnson’s face. Martin Petrov paid the price for his keeper’s red card – given little opportunity to make a belated impact as Owen Coyle sacrificed him for the replacement stopper on just 37 minutes. The Bulgarian’s price in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) has already taken a hit as patience diminishes. Kevin Davies meanwhile took home his second full bonus haul when he earned and converted a second-half penalty but while his stock remains stable, Bolton’s fixtures will provide a barrier to any investment (ars avl MUN wba STK).

Birmingham’s Craig Gardner put his hat into the ring once more as he scored his third goal in two games. McLeish seems to rate Gardner highly and the former Villa man appears to have jumped the pecking order over the experienced box-to-box play of Lee Boywer; at just £5.0m in FPL Gardner might just make a handy midfield stock filler for fantasy managers.

Notably, Alex McLeish chose to field a 4-5-1 formation for the trip to the Reebok, dropping summer signing Nikola Zigic to the bench, with Cameron Jerome the lone striker.

Also of note was what looked like a nasty knee injury picked up by Seb Larsson but early reports suggest it may not have been as serious as first feared. A possible absence for Larsson would could as a blow for Fantasy Managers as Birmingham’s fixtures, with three home games in four, make them a serious consideration for mid-price investors (LIV wba WIG EVE ars).

Sunderland continued with their strong home form as they knocked title contenders Man City down a notch with a 94th minute penalty via the trusty peg of Darren Bent, who is continuing to show that he will score goals irrespective of his opponent.

Investors in the £4.5 FPL defender Ahmed Al-Muhammadi will have been enthused by the fact that he continued to be deployed on the right wing for The Black Cats and was running that flank all day, earning himself 2 bonus points as reward.

On the injury front, Steve Bruce is also currently sweating on a setbacks suffered by Michael Turner, and particularly Frazier Campbell, whom he fears may be out for a prolonged period with ankle ligament damage.

Carlos Tevez will have cut a lonely figure on the team bus on the journey home from the Stadium of Light. His incredible miss from 9-yards ultimately proved costly as Bent’s spot-kick punished the visitors and seized the three points.

Notably Yaya Toure again stood out as the most offensive of the Citizens midfield trio and comes in at a very slender price of £5.5m. On any (other) given Sunday he could have had a very productive Fantasy return at the weekend.

Despite the uncertainty created by rotation in the City lineup, three home games in the next four (BLA wig CHE NEW) make Mancini’s side a potential source of talent and, despite his miss, Tevez as skipper, is likely to be the main target for investment.

Everton absolutely dominated Aston Villa for huge percentages of their clash with Villa but “experimental” selections like Jack Rodwell out on the right and Jermaine Beckford’s selection ahead of Louis Saha failed to pay off. Saha and the lively Seamus Coleman showed far greater incision on their arrival as subs but the equaliser just wouldn’t arrive for the Toffees. You have to wonder, given Everton’s struggle to convert chances, whether a shift to 4-4-2 is on the cards soon from David Moyes.

Mikel Arteta was employed a little deeper than most would like for an £8.4m midfielder but he still dominated set-pieces, and just as importantly caught the eye of the bonus judges for another full 3 point haul. When Everton start fetching results we can surely expect Arteta to come good. The downside remains their fixtures list which stiffens with a home encounters with United and Liverpool in the next five.

Ashley Young continued to impress for Aston Villa – when they had the ball – playing in the hole behind John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor, his large haul of 36 attacking points in the Metro game is just one indicator of how heavily involved he was when you compare to his team-mates. Carew – 9, Downing – 11, Albrighton – 8.

Albrighton owners drew a blank from their man and his starting role now looks precarious with Agbonlahor and Carew ready to form a pairing up front. Young’s form could keep that tactical switch at bay for a little longer although much depends on the managerial situation at Villa Park.

Liverpool were far from firing on all cylinders once again but Fernando Torres popped up with a pin-point volley to prove the difference against West Brom. Hodgson once more employed a 4-4-1-1 formation, not too dissimilar from the system he used at Fulham; Steven Gerrard was employed in support of Torres and the recent signing of Raul Meireles indicates this may remain the case, even when Joe Cole is back from his ban.

Sunday’s winning strike will surely have done Torres’ confidence a whole world good after he failed to score through all of Spain’s World Cup victory this summer. Hodgson will now be hoping that Del Bosque does him a favour and allows him to stay in Liverpool for the next two weeks to work on his sharpness. Torres has now scored 41 goals in 43 League games at Anfield. Home games against Sunderland and Blackpool in gameweeks 6 and 7 appear to offer plum opportunities for the Spaniard to play his way firmly into our Fantasy thinking.

James Morrison was perhaps the unfortunate recipient of a red card in West Brom’s trip to Anfield, but will now serve a three game ban for his over-zealous challenge on Fernando Torres. Roberto Di Matteo’s team as a whole however, showed good composure and more than held their own which can only have been a promising sign. The Baggies had a total 16 goal attempts at Anfield compared to the home sides’ 11. They also shared overall possession with Liverpool, demonstrating at they did at Stamford Bridge in spells, that they are certainly Premier League in that department. Three home games in the next four (TOT BIR ars BOL) might just arouse some interest in the West Brom midfield which has made an impressive start to the season.