Chelsea not distracted by Everton complaint

Newcastle Utd v Chelsea:Chelsea are concentrating on putting the final touches to their preparations for tonight's League Cup quarter-final tie with Newcastle instead of reacting to Everton's complaint to the English Footbal Association.

Everton have gone to the FA with their concerns about comments made by Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho labelled Everton and England striker Andy Johnson a "diver" after Sunday's 3-2 win at Goodison Park and his comments sparked Everton, in association with the player's agent, to issue a statement calling for a retraction.

Everton have since taken legal advice over the issue and are ready to submit a complaint to the FA about Mourinho's remarks which, they say, question Johnson's "professionalism and integrity".

So far Chelsea have refused to respond to Everton's actions and are more concerned with their quarter-final tie at St James' Park in which two former players are expected to return to action against them - winger Damien Duff and midfielder Scott Parker.

Chelsea needed a late goal from Didier Drogba to overcame a stubborn Newcastle last week in a tight affair at Stamford Bridge in the Premiership.

Mourinho will rest a number of regular first-team players with Claude Makelele and Ashley Cole among the favourites.

The Portuguese coach also has a number of injury concerns with captain John Terry the most worrying. He missed the win over Everton with a recurrence of a long-standing back injury and is likely to undergo a late fitness test ahead of the game.

Hilario is ready to continue in goal if Italian keeper Carlo Cudicini, battling to recover from a thigh problem, is ruled out once more.

But while Mourinho confirmed some of his first team stars will have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines for a change, he insisted the League Cup is still a competition they want to win.

Mourinho said: "Newcastle is a good team, like Everton. At Everton there are 30,000 referees, in Newcastle there are 50,000.

"It will be even more difficult. I am going to rest some players, that is obvious. People think we have a massive squad. It is not true.

"Our squad is short and we have some problems. We have Wigan away on Saturday, so I will make some changes.

"But the Carling Cup is a competition which we won two years ago. We are in the quarter-final, so we are not going to give a present to Newcastle and give them an easy game. We are going there with some fresh players but I hope we can get a result."

Mourinho may well wait until his post-match conference at Newcastle to respond publicly to Everton's actions over his comments about Johnson.

But the fact Everton did nothing when Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger made similar remarks about the player's style earlier this season will not have escaped his notice.

Meanwhile, Gordon Taylor waded into the issue by asking the FA to clampdown on managers commenting on other clubs' players.

He said: "Jose likes to be controversial to say the least and there is certainly a lot of publicity attached to it. I get a little bit worried sometimes about the way managers are too keen to make points about other clubs' players."

Newcastle United yesterday confirmed for the first time the Jersey-based group Belgravia, which has been in takeover talks with the club since August, has completed the process of auditing the books at St James' Park.

This confirmation is likely to see Belgravia's credibility on Tyneside rise, although there remains no official bid for the club.

Ideally if Belgravia is to purchase the club it would like to do so in time to take advantage of the January transfer window and, despite legal formalities, there is confidence within Belgravia it has the means to inject funds into the club immediately.

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd will meet the manager, Glenn Roeder, before tonight's match against Chelsea to discuss transfer activity in the window.

In contrast Albert Luque's future at Newcastle is uncertain after the forward's walkout before the Watford game last Saturday. "I am not very impressed by that," Shepherd said.

Venue: St James' Park Kick-off: 7.45pm On TV: Sky Sports 1