LONDON -- Fulham brought in Germany midfielder Lewis Holtby and Greece striker Kostas Mitroglou, while Cardiff took winger Wilfried Zaha on loan from Manchester United as struggling English Premier League clubs reinforced their squads on Friday. The rush of contracts came as the January transfer window was closing late Friday. The 23-year-old Holtby arrived at Tottenham from Schalke 12 months ago in a 1.25 million pound ($2 million) deal but struggled to establish himself at Spurs. According to Holtbys agent, Marcus Noak, the player was keen on returning to the Bundesliga but his price tag was a dissuasive factor. "A return to the Bundesliga has been shattered due to circumstances we couldnt control," Noak said. "Fulham has put much effort into Lewis. It is a very well-run club with an excellent manager, Rene Meulensteen. The system and philosophy how Fulham plays fits well with Lewis." Holtby has joined Fulham on loan for the rest of the season. His signing follows the recent arrivals of Clint Dempsey -- on a two-month loan from the Seattle Sounders -- and William Kvist. "Ill do what I can to help us beat teams and keep us up and out of the bottom three and ensure that we have a good remainder of the season," Holtby said. Languishing in the relegation zone, Fulham achieved a real coup with the midfielders arrival as Adel Taarabt headed to AC Milan following a disappointing spell at Craven Cottage. Fulham also added to its attack with the signing of Mitroglou on a four-and-a-half-year deal from Olympiakos. The Greece forward is expected to replace Dimitar Berbatov, who has been linked with a move to Monaco and is expected in the principality on Friday for a medical. Also involved in the relegation fight, Cardiffs new manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer used his United connections to lure Zaha from Old Trafford, where the 21-year-old is judged surplus to requirements. Zaha helped Crystal Palace secure promotion through the playoffs last year but was relegated to the bench by United. Zaha is Cardiffs sixth January signing after Solksjaer, a former United player, reinforced his struggling squad with the addition of Fabio, Kenwyne Jones, Magnus Wolff Eikrem, Mats Moller Daehli and Jo Inge Berget. Cardiff is bottom of the Premier League and Solksjaer is hoping that Zahas skills will lead his side out of the drop zone. He said Zaha "will bring that little final bit to find pockets of space and produce a bit of magic." The big teams remained relatively quiet as United confirmed it would not make any more signings before the 2300 GMT deadline after it shattered the club record transfer by paying Chelsea 37.1 million pounds ($61 million) for Spain midfielder Juan Mata last week. "You can stand your cameras down," United manager David Moyes told a news conference. "I dont think they will be required. We have done our business." Chelsea announced the signing of Saint-Etienne defender Kurt Zouma on a five-and-a-half-year deal but the 19-year-old central defender will remain on loan at the French club until the end of the season. Chelseas north London rivals Arsenal looked for a replacement for the injured Aaron Ramsey and were expected to sign veteran midfielder Kim Kallstrom on loan for the remainder of the season. English topflight clubs had already spent 10 million pounds ($16.5 million) more than this time last year. According to football finance experts Deloitte, Premier League clubs had spent 95 million pounds ($156 million) on acquiring new players ahead of the deadline day, with gross spending at this point last season reaching 85 million pounds ($140 million). On the final day of the window in January 2013, they spent 35 million pounds ($57.5 million). Regardless of the amount of activity on Friday, Deloitte says Premier League clubs have already set a record for transfer spending this season, which broke the "700 million pounds ($1.15 billion) mark for the first time, with spending currently at 725 million pounds ($1.19 billion)." Oakland Athletics Gear .com) - Robert Upshaw made a putback jumper to put 17th-ranked Washington ahead with 1:27 remaining in the game and the Huskies held on to beat Eastern Washington 81-77 on Sunday. Athletics Jerseys China . It is unclear how long Kallstrom, who was brought in to alleviate the teams midfield problems, will be sidelined. Arsenals communications director, Mark Gonnella, says the club decided to proceed with Kallstroms signing despite the injury. https://www.cheapathleticsonline.com/. Goins is the early favourite to win the starting job at second base. Pillar is an outsider to secure a role off the bench, which becomes an even more difficult spot to win if the number of back up jobs is reduced by one. That happens if the Blue Jays decide to start the season with an eight man bullpen. Chris Bassitt Athletics Jersey . The Senators will put the busy off-season and training camp behind them when they open their regular season on the road. They kick things off Friday against the Buffalo Sabres and then head to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday. Wholesale Athletics Jerseys . Team officials travelled to Los Angeles on Thursday night to meet with the free agent, a person with knowledge of the plans said.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Washingtons beleaguered defence finally found an opponent it could bully around after its historically bad start to the season. David Amerson returned an interception for a touchdown, the defence harassed Oakland backup quarterback Matt Flynn into seven sacks and the Redskins overcome an early 14-point deficit to beat the Oakland Raiders 24-14 Sunday for their first win of the season. "We needed that so bad," defensive end Ryan Kerrigan said. "It really feels good. Seven was kind of the magic number today -- we give up only seven points, we have seven sacks, scored seven points on defence. Great feeling right now." The Redskins (1-3) looked ready to extend the worst start for the franchise since 2001 when they fell behind 14-0 after the first quarter to the Raiders (1-3) on a blocked punt touchdown and a scoring pass from Flynn. But the defence took over after that against a team missing starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor and without starting running backs Darren McFadden and Marcel Reece for much of the game. Robert Griffin III threw a go-ahead touchdown pass late in the third quarter and Roy Helu Jr. iced the game with a 14-yard TD run in the fourth as the Redskins rallied from 14 points down after the first quarter to win on the road for just the second time since at least 1991. "What we did when we were down 14-0, and thats what weve got to do the rest of the season," Griffin said. After Griffin used the no-huddle offence to get Washington a field goal, Amerson got the Redskins back in the game when he stepped in front of Flynns pass to Denarius Moore and ran it back 45 yards to cut Oaklands lead to 14-10. "It almost seemed like one of those typical games, where you know, were down 14 and Here we go," linebacker Brian Orakpo said. "Same thing, same story. Nobody could really get going but that pick-six was huge. Turnovers really play key in the outcome of the game." The Oakland offence struggled to generate much of anything without its entire starting backfield and the Raiders lost a game they led by at least 14 points after the first quarter for the first time since 1998 against Kansas City. "That one hurt, that one stung," coach Dennis Allen said. "I felt the way we were able to staart out the game .dddddddddddd get to 14-0 . then we let them back in the game. Give them credit, they continued to fight. But we didnt do enough to win the football game. Flynn was sacked seven times, losing a fumble that set up Helus TD that gave Washington a 24-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Kerrigan forced the fumble on his second sack and Orakpo and Barry Cofield also brought down Flynn twice. It was a rare good day for a Washington defence that allowed 1,464 yards of offence through three games -- the most through a teams first three games since the 1951 New York Yanks gave up 1,494, according to STATS LLC. The Yanks folded after that season. Even the usually reliable Sebastian Janikowski was off his game for the Raiders, missing a 52-yard field goal attempt wide left midway through the third quarter after Logan Paulsen lost a fumble. Alfred Morris, bottled up most of the game, had three carries for 29 yards on the ensuing drive before leaving with bruised ribs. Griffin capped it with a 5-yard slant to Pierre Garcon that gave the Redskins their first second-half lead of the season. The Raiders didnt settle on a starting quarterback until Saturday night when it was determined Pryor could not go after sustaining a concussion last Monday in Denver. Flynn got off to an early lead in his third career start with help from Oaklands special teams when Jeremy Stewart recovered Rashad Jennings blocked punt of Sav Rocca in the end zone. Flynn got into the act as well with an impressive 81-yard drive that featured a 34-yard pass to Denarius Moore and was capped by the 18-yard TD to rookie Mychal Rivera. Washingtons defence took over after that, harassing Flynn all afternoon. "They definitely handle themselves back there differently," Raiders centre Stefen Wisniewski said. "So we have to try to block differently. Its tough to change at the drop of a hat, though. We found out last night we have a different quarterback so we have to adjust to that." NOTES: Redskins LB London Fletcher played in his 244th consecutive regular-season game, passing Bill Romanowski for most by a defensive player since the 1970 merger. ... Flynns seven sacks were the most for a Raiders QB since Andrew Walter was brought down nine times in 2006 at Seattle. ' ' '