Speaking after Everton’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield, Moyes said the club had granted permission for Pienaar’s representatives to enter into talks with Chelsea, but had rebuffed a bid from Tottenham.

“We have accepted an offer from Chelsea. Steven has not agreed terms with Chelsea,” Moyes said. “We’ve given his representatives a chance to talk to Chelsea, but they’ve not got permission to talk to Tottenham because they’ve not offered the same money.”

The likely departure of Pienaar is a blow to Everton, but with the player out of contract at the end of the season, the Toffees had little choice but to cash in during the January window.

British press reported on Saturday that Pienaar was holding out for a move to Tottenham, with Spurs his preferred destination.

Source: sport24.co.za

The Gunners required extra time to clinch victory at White Hart Lane, and they were grateful for two unnecessary tugs of the shirt as Samir Nasri converted twice from the penalty spot in the 92nd and 96th minute.

Wenger opted for a far stronger side than Arsenal fans have become accustomed to in recent Carling Cup campaigns, naming Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Laurent Koscielny and Denilson all in the starting XI. However, it was 19-year-old Henri Lansbury who broke the deadlock, poking home his first Arsenal goal after a fine cross from Jack Wilshere.

The Gunners enjoyed 67% of possession in the first half, but Redknapp introduced Robbie Keane at the interval and he equalised within three minutes, sliding a shot past the weak left hand of Lukasz Fabianski who should have saved it.

Both sides had chances to finish the match inside 90 minutes, but extra time was needed to separate the teams. Sebastien Bassong and Steven Caulker both conceded penalties in the five first minutes of the additional period, with Nasri sending Spurs’ new goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa the wrong way on both occasions to carry Arsenal into round four. Andrei Arshavin then fired home a fourth for a jubilant Gunners side.

Brentford produced the shock result of the night, beating Everton 4-3 on penalties after holding the Merseysiders to a 1-1 draw. David Moyes must have had a few choice words with his side following the weekend defeat to Newcastle, and they responded with a bright opening at Griffin Park, taking the lead when Diniyar Bilyaletdinov set up Seamus Coleman to smash home.

However, Brentford were level by the break, with Gary Alexander heading home following a magnificent burst of speed from Miles Weston. No goals followed, which meant penalties, and Jermaine Beckford and Phil Jagielka both missed for the Premier League club.

It was a disappointing return to Turf Moor for Owen Coyle as his Bolton side were beaten 1-0by Burnley. Coyle was greeted by plenty of jeers and bank notes as he returned to his former club, where the Burnley faithful still haven’t completely forgiven him for jumping ship last season. But things got worse for the Bolton manager as Wade Elliott controversially grabbed the only goal of the game on the stroke of half time, the linesman judging that the ball had marginally crossed the line.

West Ham built on their first point of the season, earned at Stoke on Saturday, defeatingSunderland 2-1 to advance to the fourth round of the Carling Cup. The Hammers left Carlton Cole on the bench for their trip to the North East, and they were rewarded with a brilliant finish from Frederic Piquionne as they stunned the home crowd on 35 minutes.

The lead lasted all of six minutes as Asamoah Gyan, making his first Sunderland start, headed home an equaliser before half time. But Scott Parker and Pablo Barrera continued to play some quality football after the break, and on the hour they got their reward as the latter set up Victor Obinna to net the winner for West Ham.

Wolves were forced to come from behind to beat Notts County 4-2 after extra time at Molineux. Former West Brom striker Lee Hughes received abuse all night from the home crowd, but it was he who broke the deadlock in the second half, heading home before receiving a yellow card after he revealed a “Boing boing” message to the home fans on his t-shirt.

Wolves struggled to fashion chances as they battled for a way back into the match, but Liam Chilvers was sent off with seven minutes remaining for a foul that led to a Wolves penalty, and Nenad Milijas converted from 12 yards to force extra time. The numerical advantage told during the additional period, with Kevin Doyle (2) and Steven Fletcher both getting on the scoresheet for Wolves.

Stoke made the most of Fulham’s weakness at set-pieces, exposed by Blackburn at the weekend, booking their place in the fourth round with a 2-0 victory. The first half became a feisty affair at the Britannia Stadium following a poor challenge on Moussa Dembele, and Danny Murphy may count himself fortunate to have only seen yellow after throwing the ball in the face of Ryan Shawcross.

Stoke did punish the Cottagers before half time through Danny Higginbotham, who arrived unmarked inside the area to head home Matthew Etherington’s deep corner. And then Rory Delap launched a trademark long throw deep into the second half for Kenwyne Jones to kill the game off.

Birmingham enjoyed a Tuesday night stroll past MK Dons, with summer captures Alexander Hleb and Jean Beausejour shining in an easy 3-1 victory for the Premier League side. Blues blitzed their visitors in a marvellous first 45 minutes at St Andrew’s that saw Beausejour instantly make himself a fans’ favourite.

The Chile international provided assists for the opening two goals, supplying a cross for Hleb to score on his home debut and then for Nikola Zigic to convert a carbon copy second. Craig Gardner then bagged his fourth goal of the season after replacing the injured Michel, before Aaron Wilbraham netted a late consolation for the visitors.

Millwall completed a horror week on home turf by crashing out 2-1 to fellow Championship side Ipswich. The Lions were looking to bounce back from their 6-1 weekend defeat to Watford, but there were more boos from the New Den crowd by half time after a much-changed Ipswich side built a two-goal lead.

Boasting eight changes, Roy Keane’s side led through Tamas Priskin’s header, and then Gareth McAuley’s shot slipped through the goalkeeper’s grasp as things went from bad to worse for the home side. Steve Morison outmuscled his marker to halve the deficit on the hour, but Ipswich deservedly advanced to the next round.

Elsewhere, Swansea had Scott Sinclair to thank as they beat Peterborough 3-1. Sinclair has been in sparkling form this season, and it was he who made the difference, bagging a hat-trick to take his personal tally to seven in the last six games. Craig Mackail-Smith scored for Peterborough.

And Portsmouth came off second best against Leicester, missing a host of chances in a 2-1defeat at Fratton Park. Michael Morrison opened the scoring for the Foxes, who doubled their lead through Lloyd Dyer before Richard Hughes earned a straight red card for foul and abusive language. Liam Lawrence halved the deficit with eight minutes remaining, but Leicester clung on for victory.

Source + Pic: soccernet.espn.go.com

Moyes and Round confronted referee Martin Atkinson at the end of the game after he had blown the final whistle while Everton broke away on the counter-attack. Everton had scored twice in injury time to rescue the point.

After the game, Moyes said: “The two goals were scored after 90 minutes and they’d put up three minutes of extra time. He didn’t get his time right because there was more time to add on for the goals and he played three minutes 30 seconds.

“They had the corner kick and we had a great counter-attack and he blew up with the ball 25 yards from their goal. It is a spectator sport with people coming to watch the game and not for him to be the main man and the one who wants to be seen making the decisions.

“That was a terrible decision in my book.”

The FA has now confirmed that Moyes and his assistant face disciplinary action over their response to the incident.

A statement read: “Everton manager David Moyes and assistant manager Steve Round have both been charged with improper conduct.

“The charges relate to Moyes’ and Round’s conduct towards referee Martin Atkinson on the pitch following the final whistle at Everton’s home match against Manchester United on September 11.

“Under the FA’s new fast-track procedures, Moyes and Round have until Thursday, September 16, to respond to the charges and have both been offered a standard sanction of an £8,000 fine should they accept the charge.

“If either party denies the charge, the case will be heard by a regulatory commission within 10 working days.”

Source + Pic: soccernet.espn.go.com

The Bafana Bafana star has stood out in the English Premier League this season and consequently his future has been intensely scrutinised by the British media in recent weeks.

The Daily Mail is the latest publication to chip in with fresh speculation, claiming the Reds are preparing to enter the bidding war for the Westbury-born attacker.

Pienaar, who has a year left on his existing contract with the Toffees, has previously stated he will only decide on his career after the World Cup although his agent, Ivan Mudia, recently suggested otherwise.

Mudia said: “I think Steven would like to know what he is doing next season before the Soccer World Cup.”

Naturally, club boss David Moyes is desperate to quash the interest and is set to offer Pienaar a new lucrative deal, which will make the 28-year-old one of the highest earners at the club.

Moyes has also applied pressure through comments he recently made to the Liverpool Echo.

He said: “Steven Pienaar is at a club that really suits him and sometimes a player has to decide what is best for them.

“Everton has been good for Steven. If anybody wanted to leave, they’d be poorer for it. Most people that have left here, it’s not tended to work out for them.”

Source: sport24.co.za

Second-placed Manchester United drew 1-1 at Aston Villa while Arsenal stayed in the hunt after beating Liverpool 1-0.

Saha, who scored against Chelsea in the FA Cup final last season and in the 3-3 draw against them in December, cancelled out Florent Malouda’s 17th minute opener for Chelsea with a header in the 33rd.

He then had a penalty saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech on the stroke of halftime before scoring the winner after 75 minutes when he chested the ball down, turned and fired home.

That sent Chelsea to their first defeat in 11 matches and gave Everton manager David Moyes his first victory over the London side on the night he celebrated his 300th Premier League game.

Chelsea remain top with 58 points, but are just one point ahead of Manchester United, who drew at Villa despite playing for more than an hour with 10 men after Nani was sent off for a ragged two-footed challenge on Stilian Petrov.

Nani will now be suspended from the League Cup final against Villa at Wembley Stadium on February 28.

Arsenal ended a run of four league and cup matches without a win beating Liverpool 1-0 at the Emirates where Abou Diaby headed the only goal 18 minutes from time.

They are third on 52 points and Liverpool are fourth on 44.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger refused to rule his team out of contention for the title when he told Sky Sports News: “It was a massive win for us after the last two disappointments against Manchester United and Chelsea.

“We showed great solidarity against a very well organised team. It was a very tight game but we scored a very good goal and are still in the title race—why not ?” he said.

On balance it turned out to be a better night for Manchester United than they might have expected after going behind against Villa when Carlos Cuellar headed home after 19 minutes.

United equalised four minutes later when Nani’s cross from the right was volleyed back across goal by Ryan Giggs. The ball hit the right knee of James Collins and flew past Brad Friedel to give United their 10th own goal of the season.

United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports: “We should have won the game, we were the better team—and with 10 men for a very long time, we still tried to get a result. The players were brilliant.”

Tottenham Hotspur lost 1-0 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. David Jones scored the only goal after 27 minutes as Wolves moved out of the relegation zone while Spurs stayed sixth on 43 points.

West Ham United also moved out of the bottom three following their 2-0 win over Birmingham City whose former owners David Sullivan and David Gold celebrated their first win since taking control at Upton Park.

Hull City lost 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers, slipping from 15th to 17th, just a point above the relegation zone.

Source + Pic: supersport.co.za

The Reds won local bragging rights at Anfield on Saturday as Dirk Kuyt’s close-range header 10 minutes after half-time proved the difference.

Gerrard was happy with all three points and the team’s display, especially as Liverpool had to play most of the match with 10 men after the sending-off of Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

And with confidence high, the Liverpool skipper hopes his team can keep up the momentum and finish the campaign well.

“You always enjoy beating your local rivals but it was the way we did it that was really satisfying, particularly after losing a man after half an hour,” Gerrard said. “I thought we showed fantastic character, a great attitude and I also thought we played some decent stuff at times. I thought it was a fully deserved win.

“You could see what it meant to everyone on the pitch at the end and it was the same again in the dressing room afterwards; everybody is still on a high. ”But we have used beating Everton as a platform in the past and we’ve got to do it again. We want to extend our run and go on to better things.”

The win moved Liverpool up to fourth spot – one point ahead of rivals Tottenham Hotspur – as the race for Champions League qualification hots up.

“We know there is a long way to go and we want to make sure we are in the top four at the end of the season,” said Gerrard.

“It’s performances like this that will get you in there. We have got to try and keep this run going, as we can’t afford any slip-ups.

“There is pressure coming from Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa. There are a couple of very tough games coming up but if we can show what we have done in the last six games, I don’t see why we can’t maintain it.”

Source: premierleague.com

Defoe had put Spurs ahead two minutes into the second half and Michael Dawson doubled their advantage with more than half an hour remaining at Goodison Park.

But substitute striker Louis Saha began Everton’s comeback with a 78th-minute goal and Australian midfielder Tim Cahill grabbed the equalizer on his 30th birthday to end the club’s three-match losing streak in the league.

“We’ve had a bit of bad luck so it was nice to get that draw,” Cahill said.

Referee Andre Marriner gave Spurs a chance to reclaim the lead when he penalized Tony Hibbert for fouling Wilson Palacios in the penalty area.

But Defoe saw his tame spot kick saved by goalkeeper Tim Howard, who the striker could face again in England’s World Cup opener against the United States next June.

“Louis Saha gave me a word of advice before the penalty,” Howard said. “I knew what to expect, but he tipped me off a little bit.

There’s so much video now that there’s not one penalty you can’t see.”

The draw kept Tottenham in fourth place, one point behind Arsenal, who have a game in hand over their north London rival.

In Sunday’s other match, Fulham moved back into the top half of the standings by beating Sunderland 1-0.

Chelsea’s lead at the top was trimmed to two points Saturday when Carlo Ancelotti’s side lost 2-1 at Manchester City and second-place Manchester United won 4-0 at West Ham.

While Chelsea and United have broken away from the chasing pack, Arsenal and Tottenham have stiff competition for the next two Champions League spots.

Since Spurs thrashed Wigan 9-1, they have now drawn twice and it took them until the start of the second half to finally breach the defense of injury-hit Everton.

Aaron Lennon whipped in a cross from the right and Defoe nipped in front of Hibbert, who was slow to react, at the near post to score his 12th league goal of the season.

And from Niko Kranjcar’s 59th-minute corner, Lucas Neill allowed Dawson to escape him in the penalty area and the center back dived low to score in successive league matches.

The goal prompted a double attack-minded change from Everton manager David Moyes, with Saha and Ayegbeni Yakubu replacing Jo and Jack Rodwell.

Gareth Bale came close to curling in Tottenham’s third from a free kick, but then was easily beaten back in defense by 21-year-old right back Seamus Coleman. The defender crossed to Saha, who beat goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes at the near post.

Saha went close to leveling with an overhead kick, but Cahill succeeded with a low header from Leighton Baines’ cross in the 86th minute to earn Everton’s first point since October. The club lies 15th in the standings with 16 points, three points above the relegation zone.

Source + Pic: supersport.co.za

Two goals from Didier Drogba and a Thomas Vermaelen own goal made the difference as Arsenal, who had won their previous 11 home games in all competitions, struggled to make an impression on a Chelsea defence that has conceded just eight goals in 14 league games.

The match encapsulated the key differences between the two London sides as Chelsea’s powerful lineup outmuscled Arsenal’s lightweights and, when in sight of goal, went for the jugular.

In contrast, Arsenal were content to play endless passes around the box in attacks that all too often petered out thanks to over-elaboration.

Chelsea top the standings on 36 points, five clear of United, who won 4-1 at Portsmouth on Saturday with a Wayne Rooney hat-trick. Tottenham Hotspur are third on 26 with Arsenal, who last won the title in 2004, fourth on 25.

Liverpool, who won 2-0 at Everton earlier on Sunday, are fifth on 23.

There was barely an effort on goal in the opening 40 minutes at the Emirates but the game exploded into life with two near-identical goals in the last four minutes of the half.

The first came when John Terry slipped a nice pass into the stride of Ashley Cole and when he whipped in a low cross Drogba somehow found space on edge of the six-yard box and steered an excellent side-footed volley into the roof of the net.

Former Arsenal man Cole, relentlessly booed by the home fans, repeated the delivery three minutes later and in an attempt to prevent the ball reaching Drogba, Vermaelen deflected it into his own net in the same spot as the first goal.

Arsenal did have the ball in the net four minutes after the restart but Andrei Arshavin’s goal was ruled out for a challenge on Petr Cech by Eduardo and for all their neat passing and midfield probing they struggled to fashion much in the way of clear chances.

Instead, Manuel Almunia had to make a good diving save to keep out a deflected Drogba shot and when Arsenal eventually ran out of steam Drogba completed an impressive victory by planting a free kick beyond the diving keeper four minutes from time.

In the day’s other big derby Liverpool ended a bleak week on a high note with a morale-lifting victory.

Liverpool, whose hopes of reaching the knockout phase of the Champions League disappeared in midweek, took a fortunate early lead when Javier Mascherano’s speculative shot was deflected past Tim Howard by Everton defender Joseph Yobo.

Hard-working Everton had two goals ruled out for offside and were then denied by a great double-save by Pepe Reina before Dirk Kuyt finished it ten minutes from time, seizing on Howard’s parry of an Alberto Riera shot after another Yobo blunder.

“A derby is always very difficult and also very important so a win today could set us up for the rest of the season,” said Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.

Source + Pic: supersport.co.za

Manchester City

After having two bids rejected, City agreed a fee with the Merseyside club over the weekend.

Lescott, 27, passed a medical on Monday and finally tied up the transfer to Eastlands late on Tuesday night.

“I am absolutely delighted to welcome Joleon to Manchester City. He is an England international who has proved his Premier League ability during his time at Everton,” City manager Mark Hughes told the club’s website (www.mcfc.co.uk).

“In bringing Joleon to the Club I feel we have recruited a defender of the very highest quality.

“He can play in a number of defensive positions, and I’m positive he will make a significant impact for us.”

Lescott is City’s sixth major signing of the summer, joining Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure at Eastlands.

The former Wolves defender said: “I’m over the moon to get the move completed, and I’m looking forward to training with the lads as I’ve not trained for a few days.

“I know some of the lads already—I’m close friends with Shaun (Wright-Phillips), we’ve played against each other since we were 16 or 17.

“The way this club is moving on, I’m really looking forward to being a part of that.”

Source: supersport.co.za

The England international is expected to undergo a medical on Monday after City finally came up with a bid which met the Merseysiders’ valuation of the player. Having rejected two previous offers – the first about £18million – Everton are reported to have accepted £24million from City for Lescott.

Asked if the Lescott deal was well advanced the Everton boss said: “If they (City) say they are quite far on I’m sure they are.

“But we shouldn’t have been asked to wait this length of time for an amount of cash we think was the correct value for the player.

“Real Madrid came in with the money (£80million for Cristiano Ronaldo) for Manchester United the week after the end of the season.

“If the money had been offered in June it would have been a lot easier for us.

“The time is against us (to find a replacement).”

Source: football365.com