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Barring Man United’s five-star pasting of Wigan, the gameweek 18 set of fixtures witnessed a sluggish return from the Christmas break in terms of goals. PPP/CTN Fantasy League points seemed harder to find than an unstuffed turkey, but two celebrated stars lead the way will dazzling performances.

Up until the start of last week, United’s Bulgarian hitman Dimitar Berbatov had mustered just six points all season. However, a five-point haul against Fulham highlighted his perpetual potential and a sublime hat-trick on Boxing Day converted to 17 points and the MVP status.

Berbatov was assisted by Antonio Valencia for one of his strikes, and the Ecudorian midfielder also got his name on the scoresheet to take home 13 points.

In Tuesday night’s concluding gameweek tie between Spurs and Norwich, Welsh dynamo Gareth Bale proved the difference with both goals of the game to earn 16 points for fantasy managers.

Gameweek 18 breaks new ground in that it becomes the first occasion this campaign we have a dead heat. Fantasy league stalwarts Nith Poch, with his team Aston Memot, and game-week 1 winner Yang Raksmey, with his side Khmer Galaxy United, registered identical points totals of 73 and made two transfers apiece.

Interestingly, both squads featured Man United’s unusually subdued playmaker Nani as captain for just six points, but made up ground with the likes of Valencia.

In terms of our rules and regulations, the two managers are each entitled to either a US$20 phone voucher or internet dongle as well as a T-shirt from sponsors Cellcard.

The last gameweek of the year is also the last gameweek of the first half of the season, which has been dominated by Henry Verey and his team VoxClamantis. Henry currently tops the overall standings on 1,112 points, 54 ahead of second placed Den Jones’ Athletico Bilebola.

Gameweek 19 kicks off tonight with Liverpool v Newcastle and concludes in 2012 on Sunday. Gameweek 20 follows hot on its heels with matches from Monday, so be at the ready for some savvy transfers.