Raul Meireles Joins Chelsea From Liverpool

Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles has completed a 12th hour move to Premier League rivals Chelsea on a permanent transfer deal. Curious how this one came about - Liverpool sent a press release out at 10.30pm that Meireles had handed in a written transfer request on deadline day and then only 40 minutes later, 10 minutes after the window deadline, Chelsea had confirmed his signature. A deal couldn't possibly have been done for Meireles in just 30 minutes - completing the medical and all the paperwork that goes with it, just not possible. So we can only presume a written transfer request went in early today and was only made public by Liverpool just before the move was secured and just about ready to be announced. Meireles played 33 times for Liverpool last season and scored 5 goals. He also appeared in two of Liverpool's opening league fixtures but forever had the burden of being a Roy Hogdson signing and the majority of those have been shipped out by new manager Kenny Dagleish. Meanwhile, Chelsea tonight also confirmed their midfielder Yossi Benayoun had joined London rivals Arsenal.