Let me start this with a big caveat. John Cross is a journalist for the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror is an absolutely horrible publication. They have an absolutely horrible reputation for accuracy or having any sort of standards, and their stories are usually best ignored. That said, it's deadline day and there are all sorts of reports out there involving both Michael Essien and Daniel Sturridge. Cross has interesting notes on both situations, so why don't we take a look. First, we'll look at Sturridge:

Sturridge turned down Liverpool - not Chelsea. Liverpool wanted a one year loan while Sturridge wanted permanent switch. He's not happy

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) August 31, 2012

Again, this makes very little sense. Why Chelsea would agree to loan out their only backup striker who happens to be in the last year of his deal is a relevant question to ask, and this report being true would only make it more confusing. Now we have Essien:

My understanding is that Arsenal were offered Essien - and not the other way round. They politely declined but was never on today's agenda

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) August 31, 2012

Again, this would make very little sense. Chelsea wouldn't seem to have any real need to loan out Essien, but if they were considering a loan they'd almost certainly prefer not to send him to a Premier League rival.

These are fun to read I suppose, but the fact that it's a Mirro employee tweeting these comments makes me extremely skeptical. We'll probably never know the specifics of either of these deals, but the good news is that both seem to be moving in the "not happening" direction. Just under three hours to go...