An absorbing weekend stuffed full of delicious derbys wrapped up on Sunday night, although the best tallies didn’t come from the local battles.

Star turn of the week went to Chelsea’s Serbian stalwart Branislav Ivanovic, who scored, assisted and kept a clean sheet to amass a sumptuous 17 points. Hot on his heels were Arsenal’s dynamic duo of Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie, who shared scoring and assisting duties on all three of the strikes against West Ham, grabbed 16 points a piece.

In our PPP/CTN Fantasy League, Nik Ray surged into third place in the table with a stonking 93 points from gameweek 23, which also saw him collect the weekly prize of a US$20 phone voucher and T-shirt from sponsors Cellcard.

Nik’s team, the affably named Chap, doubled up on captain fantastic Carlos Tevez for 26 points, as well as cashing in on Van Persie’s 16 and Liverpool’s penalty saviour Dirk Kuyt for 12 points. Stoke’s Robert Huth and Man United’s Nemanja Vidic also contributed 8 points each for Nik’s cause. 

Thirteen fixtures squeeze into the four days of gameweek 24, with Liverpool, Wigan, Blackpool, Fulham, Man United and Aston Villa all facing double headers. But will the extra fixtures convert to extra points?

The extra wildcard on offer during the next few gameweeks will need to be used smartly to secure the better bonuses. Transfers need to meet the usual 6:30pm Saturday deadline this weekend.