Anelka joins Chelsea from Bolton

LONDON, England -- French international Nicolas Anelka has joined Chelsea from Premier League strugglers Bolton Wanderers on four and a half year deal.

Anelka, who has scored ten goals in the Premier League this season, cost the west-London club $30 million, taking overall spending on the mercurial striker to over $130 million.

The transfer was confirmed on the Web sites of both clubs on Friday.

He is the first major signing for Avram Grant since he took over from Jose Mourinho early in the season.

Anelka, 28, will bolster a Chelsea strike force shorn of Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou who are on African Nations Cup duty and Andriy Shevchenko, currently sidelined with an ankle injury.

Chelsea had an earlier bid for Anelka turned down, but Grant said after Chelsea's League Cup semifinal first leg win over Everton that he hoped to clinch a deal in time for Saturday's Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

Anelka has also played for Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League and won the Champions League while at Real Madrid. He joined Bolton from Turkish club Fenerbache.

Liverpool have signed Slovak international defender Martin Skrtel from Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg.

The 23-year-old, who will sign a four-and-a-half-year deal, has played 15 times for his country

Skrtel, who has 15 international caps, and is believed to have cost around £6.5 million ($12.73 million) - which would be a club record for a defender.

"I think he is a player maybe not many people know about but he played against Everton for Zenit St Petersburg and he is a center-half who knows the English style," Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.

"He is aggressive, quick, is good in the air and I think he's a very good player for the future and also for the present," Benitez told the club's Web site.

"He is very competitive, but his mentality for me is very good. Watching him in some games his mentality is similar to Jamie Carragher's so I think it's very positive for the team.

"He has quality and (it will be) a good problem for me if I need to decide who to play in the future. He has experience and enough quality for playing as soon as possible." E-mail to a friend