Time to back the Yak?

Yakubu celebrates at Old Trafford

A Festive period full of surprising results in the Premier League was matched in the Sky Sports Fantasy Football world this week as budget buys came to the fore.

Few gave basement side Blackburn any hope against Manchester United at Old Trafford on New Year's Eve, but a late Christmas miracle - inspired by a brace from Yakubu - inspired Rovers to a 3-2 win to leave Sir Alex Ferguson fuming.

The Nigerian striker is proving to be quite the bargain this season, with 22 points making him the man of the match, which in turn put him in the top five strikers in the game and brought up his century in the process.

With 106 points to his name, the imposing forward is a snip at £5.7 million and has already bagged 12 goals this campaign as well as claiming three MOTM awards.

Another marksman making waves is Peter Crouch, who scored twice at Ewood Park to halt Rovers' revival and secure 19 points for Fantasy managers.

The former Spurs striker now has four MOTM gongs and 89 points so far this term - which represents good value for his £7.5m pricetag.

Whether Fantasy Football managers will use the half-way point of the season to ring the changes will be hard to predict, but there are definitely some big-money strikers not cutting the mustard this season.

Chelsea duo Fernando Torres (£9.7m) and Didier Drogba (£10m) only have 40 points apiece and despite a recent glut of goals, Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov (£9.7m) only has 46.

Perhaps this is the time of the year to tighten the belt a bit and managers could do worse than offload record Liverpool signing Andy Carroll (36 points) and recoup £9.3m to spend elsewhere.

Midfield maestro

Elsewhere, Gareth Bale sealed a 2-0 win for Tottenham with both goals at Norwich to keep Harry Redknapp's men in the title hunt.

The brace put him two points short of the 102 earned by top midfielder David Silva and six clear of United winger Nani, who has been in excellent form this term.

Chelsea midfielder Ramires managed to help his side earn a much-needed away win at Wolves with a well-taken opener to take home the MOTM points too.

In a similar story of redemption, Anthony Pilkington (15 points) helped the Canaries bounce back from defeat to Spurs to score in the 2-1 win at 10-man QPR and forgotten Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Ireland bagged the opener and secured an assist against Chelsea to make the team of the week XI with 17 points.

Spurs were the only side in the top four to have any defenders worthy of the best XI as wacky results and sloppy defending dominated proceedings for the top sides.

Younes Kaboul only shipped one goal in two games and bagged 13 points, but his total was nearly topped by Everton centre-back Sylvain Distin and Swansea defender Steven Caulker, who both notched 12 points.

The busy week came to a close on Monday night as Fulham edged Arsenal 2-1 to start 2012 on a high, but Gunners defender Laurent Koscielny still made the cut after he scored the opener.

His first-half strike, coupled with a clean sheet against QPR on December 31, helped the French defender record 13 points, though he was assisted by Arsenal playing three times in the game week.

Finally, Wolves goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey got the nod after astonishing MOTM displays against Arsenal and Bolton which helped Mick McCarthy's men pick up valuable away draws.