Have you woken from the slumber induced by last night’s non-event at Eastlands? Good, because another full programme of fixtures is almost upon us and there’s still plenty of events from Gameweek 12 to digest. Thankfully, in the rest of last night’s games, things happened…

Carlo Ancelotti was forced to make two changes from the side that lost to Liverpool at the weekend with Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa drafted in for the injured pairing of Nicolas Anelka and Alex. The revelation that Didier Drogba has been suffering from malaria contracted on a recent holiday, perhaps went towards explaining some of the striker’s poor form in recent times. That continued last night and the Ivorian has now only scored one goal in the last seven Gameweeks. With Torres finding form for Liverpool, the temptation to carry out the switch must now be building – particularly as fixtures continue to fall favourably for the Spanish hitman.

Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Fulham was all about Michael Essien. The Ghana international headed home a Salomon Kalou cross on the half hour to earn his side three points, was red carded for a two footed challenge on Clint Dempsey and then rounded out his evening’s work with three FPL bonus points. An eventful night for Essien, the result of which is a three-match ban. Chelsea will miss his services against Sunderland, Birmingham and Newcastle but will hope to fill the void with the return of Frank Lampard at the weekend.

Chelsea also notched their eighth clean sheet in twelve games to date, and have yet to concede a goal at Stamford Bridge this season. They are without doubt the most regular, if more expensive, source for clean sheets around and those who skippered Ashley Cole in the FPL, enjoyed some reward from a tricky midweek programme. Branislav Ivanovic was the best performer in the Chelsea rearguard on the night however, he received his first two FPL Bonus Points of the season and must be in line to keep his starting role against Sunderland.

Fulham started with young Matt Briggs at left-back in place of the injured Carlos Salcido. The Mexican is out for another three weeks and Mark Hughes has indicated that Briggs has the opportunity to make the left-back role his own. Briggs is available for 4.0 in the Fantasy Premier League game and will likely face Newcastle away, plus home games with Birmingham and City, whilst Salcido is out.

Manchester City fought out a predictably turgid stalemate with their neighbours United. Carlos Tevez’ worrying injury doubts proved to be unfounded as their captain was the likely standout performer in amongst a defensive and somewhat uninventive City side. Three goals in the last four league games is not the attacking returns you would expect from title contenders, but is a symptom of Mancini’s approach to games. Tevez and the City back four – who claimed a second consecutive clean sheet, remain the only real targets in the City ranks as a result.

Mancini’s back four remains hard to predict however. While Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure are installed, the former is classed as a Midfielder in the FPL, while Toure looks expensive at 6.3. The full-back situation still looks cloudy although Jerome Boateng at 5.8 has now started the last six matches. He was replaced late on by Aleksandar Kolarov, who could himself emerge as a prospect at 5.7 if he can hold down the left-back role.

All of Manchester United’s talk in the build up to the game also proved to be of little merit, as Nani was passed fit to play after first being ruled out, then doubtful and then finally fit. All apparent flu candidates also passed muster to try, which meant that Javier Hernandez was demoted to the bench, while Ryan Giggs missing his first derby game in 19 years, an amazing record to have to come to an end.

United kept a second clean sheet in three here with right-back Rafael somehow also gathering two bonus, despite playing out just 48 minutes following an injury. An admin error by the Press Association/FPL perhaps? Certainly Vidic would have been a far stronger Bonus candidate. Elsewhere, the relegation of Hernandez to the bench will be a major concern to his owners. A trip to Villa this weekend could see a recall for the Mexican but equally Ferguson could look to keep things tight once more and opt for Dimitar Berbatov as a lone striker. The Bulgarian has now failed to score in his last six league appearances and has notched just one assist in that run.

Paul Scholes’ fifth yellow card of the season will see him miss the weekend trip to Villa and Ferguson is also set to be without the aforementioned Rafael and possibly Patrice Evra who suffered an ankle injury late on. John O’Shea looks nailed on for a start then, while Wes Brown could well come in at right-back.

Ian Holloway make an incredible ten changes for the Seasider’s trip to the Midlands, with his decision to bench top scorer and Fantasy favourite Charlie Adam (who eventually managed a 20 minute run-out) the most baffling one. Although six players made their Premier League debuts this season for Blackpool, they still performed admirably and were unlucky not to leave with a draw. Marlon Harewood notched against his former side, with his first goal since the opening game of the season, and DJ Campbell also netted in the narrow defeat. Blackpool’s defence is great cause for concern, having conceded 2 or more goals in eight of their 12 league games this season. Backing opponent’s to register attacking points against them remains a worthy tactic then.

In comparison, Gerard Houllier was ultra-conservative when it came to team alteration, with Villa’s only change being Ciaran Clark return, in for the injured Nigel Reo Coker. Stewart Downing grabbed a goal (his fourth of the season) an assist and the 3 Bonus Points, and is proving to be Villa’s main man so far this term. Further strikes from young Nathan Delfouneso and James Collins gave Villa the win, with Ashley Young picking up two assists and 2 Bonus Points. A good night for Villa who had scored just one goal in their previous four games. Does that say more about the Blackpool defence than Villa’s attacking prowess however?

Newcastle kept the same line-up that won at Arsenal as Chris Hughton looked for four wins on the trot. Having kept a clean sheet at the Emirates, Newcastle’s defence once again proved unpredictable, conceding a goal to Blackburn within three minutes. Andy Carroll grabbed the equaliser (and 2 Bonus Points), scoring from a Joey Barton free-kick, once again, but this 2-1 defeat now means the Magpies have lost three of their last five home games.

Joey Barton may well face FA action after he appeared to punch Gamst Pedersen in the midriff. A three-match ban for violent conduct could be on the cards.

Morten Gamst Pederson was awarded all 3 Bonus Points as he scored for the second game in succession. Jason Roberts grabbed a late winner to put a smile on Big Sam’s face as the Blackburn gaffer made a successful return to St James’ Park, with Blackburn recording their second away win of the season. Allardyce altered his formation for the game, employing three centre-halves to combat the home side’s aerial danger. Chris Samba, Ryan Nelsen and Gael Givet were flanked by wing-backs Pascal Chimbonda and Michel Salgado. Junior Hoilett came into the Rovers lineup and was pitched up just behind lone striker Nikola Kalnic.

David Moyes benched out-of-position favourite Seamus Coleman and Yakubu for Bolton’s visit to Goodison Park, giving starts to Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Louis Saha. Everton were only saved from defeat in the fourth minute of stoppage time when Leighton Baines set up Jermaine Beckford’s first Premier League goa rescued a point for the Merseysiders, who had Marouane Fellaini sent off. The Belgian will face a three-match ban, missing league games with Arsenal, Sunderland and West Brom.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s selection restricted Seamus Coleman’s involvement on the night to a substitute appearance. That will immediately put Fantasy Managers on alert who have seen both Coleman and Sunderland’s Elmohammady reduced to bench players in the space of 24 hours. As mentioned in last night’s Knee Jerk from Foch, there is every chance that both were a victim of short-term rotation and, in the case of Coleman, the suspension of Fellaini may yet work in his favour; Bilyaletdinov hardly took his opportunity with both hands last night.

Bizarrely, having quipped that Leighton Baines would outscore Seamus Coleman having rotated the pair in the Picks in recent weeks, it turned out to be accurate. While Coleman made do with a bench role, Baines was pivotal in Everton’s equaliser. Expect the pair to swap positions in our Watchlist Rankings.

Owen Coyle was one of the only managers not to ring the changes, keeping the same Bolton starting 11 that hammered Spurs last weekend. Ivan Klasnic, on for Johan Elmander after the hour mark, gave the Trotters a vital lead, but Everton’s late, late equaliser meant only the top four teams chalked up clean sheets this Gameweek. Klasnic is now a threat to Elmander’s starting role, which will be a concern for owners of the Swedish striker. Gary Cahill and Zat Knight picked up 5 Bonus Points between them, as they so nearly kept their hosts at bay. Bolton have now drawn their last four games on the road 1-1.

Roy Hodgson named an unchanged line-up for the Wigan game, with Liverpool coming into the game on the back of three straight wins. Fernando Torres continued his return towards top form, with the opener in Liverpool’s trip to the DW Stadium, his fourth goal in four games. Steven Gerrard grabbed an assist and 2 Bonus Points for his performance, but Liverpool -having conceded for the first time in three games- failed to get the better of a spirited Wigan showing.

Hugo Rodallega spoiled Liverpool’s recent resurgence, grabbing a goal early in the second-half and picking up the 3 Bonus Points as Wigan’s 1-1 draw stopped a run of 2 straight defeats. Tom Cleverly started for the home side, who have now lost just one of their last five home games (against Man City), a good record given that they shipped ten goals and scored none in their two opening games at the DW Stadium.

Mick McCarthy made only one change to the team that fell foul to a United late goal at the weekend – Michael Mancienne was drafted in for Stephen Hunt. Ultimately this transfer proved almost futile as Hunt was brought into action after just 5 minutes to replace Dave Edwards who picked up a thigh strain. Kevin Doyle, also picked up an injury on the night, he may have broken a bone in his hand.

Wolves put in a fittingly robust display and will count themselves unlucky to have walked away from this game empty handed and in particular goalless. Doyle peppered the Arsenal goalmouth on numerous occasion as did the supporting trio of Matt Jarvis, Nenad Milijas and Stephen Hunt, who all combined with each other at one time or another to create problems for the Gunners back-line.

Arsene Wenger tweaked the side that lost to Newcastle on Sunday, as Johan Djourou came in for the suspended Laurent Koscielny, while Andrei Arshavin and Thomas Rosicky both started on the wing with Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri given bench duty. It took just 30 or so seconds for Rosicky to make an impact, supplying Alex Song who in turn crossed for striker Marouanne Chamakh to open the scoring inside the first minute. It was the Moroccan scoring again 4 minutes into injury time when he bagged his second after Cesc Fabregas lofted a ball over the Wolves defence.

Marouanne Chamakh’s brace continue his streaky form of scoring and could well cement his starting role in the Arsenal lineup for the trip to Goodison this weekend, at a time when his place was clearly coming under threat. Fantasy Managers who kept faith in the Moroccan will be feeling good about themselves, while others may now consider taking another look at the striker. His goalscoring is inconsistent – almost Agbonlahor-like – in its nature however, having twice gone spells of three Gameweek’s without a goal or an assist.

Avram Grant made two changes to his starting XI as West Ham picked up their second two-all draw on the bounce. Victor Obinna and Valon Behrami made way for Kieron Dyer and Pablo Barrera to come into the Hammers team. Scott Parker powered home his third league goal of the season already (having only scored more in a full season once to date – 4 in 02/03) and Frederic Piquionne answered the question of who will cover penalties at Upton Park, while Mark Noble is out of the side through injury.

Scott Parker was duly awarded another maximum Bonus Point haul having scored the opener. That was his fourth award of the season – all of which have come in draws for West Ham. That would indicate that if the Hammers can start winning matches, Parker’s Bonus Point magnet would be turned up an notch, putting him up there with the likes of Mikel Arteta, Charlie Adam and Cesc Fabregas, when it comes to guaranteed Bonus return in a positive result scenario. An interesting prospect given West Ham’s continued run of decent opponents (BLP liv WIG sun).

West Brom arrived at Upton park just 40 minutes before kick-off but Roberto Di Matteo phoned in his team changes – James Morrison, Steven Reid, Graham Dorrans and Peter Odemwingie all started – and saw his club take the lead from the penalty spot through their Nigerian striker after Reid was felled. Centre-back Pablo Ibanez pulled the draw back for the Baggies when he headed home a sumptuous Chris Brunt cross. Brunt and Odemwingie will now likely see a boost in their Fantasy standings, with the Nigerian at just 5.1, looking a very decent prospect given the Baggies forthcoming run of opponents.