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Porto’s march to the Liga Sagres title continues unabated after the runaway leaders toppled Nacional 3-0 on Wednesday.

Benfica won the league in 2009/10 to end four consecutive title-winning years for Porto, and Andre Villas-Boas’ side seems intent on making amends this season.

With their comprehensive win over Nacional at Estadio Do Dragao, Porto are now 11 points clear on top of the league table.

They were set on their way in just the fourth minute, when irrepressible frontman Hulk scored his 27th goal for Porto in all competitions this season.

He improved that tally when he doubled his side’s advantage in the 33rd minute, with 19-year-old Columbian midfielder James Rodriguez – a 5.1 million euro signing from Argentinian club Banfield in July 2010 – rounding out the scoring 12 minutes later.

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Despite the loss, Nacional’s season remains a positive one. The Madeira club remain sixth on the table, though they have played one more game than many of their closest rivals.

Aston Villa have announced that they have completed a deal to bring Morocco international Karim El Ahmadi to the club from Feyenoord.

The midfielder becomes new Villa boss Paul Lambert’s first signing at the Birmingham-based club, and has put pen to paper on a year-year contract.

The 27-year-old has spoken of his delight at moving to the Premier League and is looking forward to competing for Villa.

“I’m very excited about coming here to a massive club and I’m looking forward to playing here,” El Ahmadi told the club’s official website.

“I’m very happy that the manager wants me and that the club wants me and I’m looking forward to starting training again.

“It’s nice that I am the manager’s first transfer and I am looking forward to doing good things with the team and with the club this year.

“This club should be competing in the top half of the table and I am looking forward to achieving that with the team.

“I came to this club and spoke to the people here and they gave me great confidence in what we can do this year, so I have chosen to come.

“As a player, I always want to have the ball and that is my main quality. I always want the ball and to dictate the game. That’s what I did at Feyenoord and hopefully I can show the fans, the club and the manager my quality,” he concluded.

Lambert is also glad to have made his first purchase as Villa boss, and has stated that the new man will bring competition for places and extra quality to the squad.

“Karim will help the team, I have no doubt about that.

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“He’s a really good footballer and he’s played well in a good team, a big team, and I’m looking forward to working with him.

“In fact, I’m really looking forward to getting things going on Thursday when the lads will report back for pre-season,” he revealed.

By Gareth McKnight

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Chelsea are lining up a move for Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles, the Daily Mail reports.

The Portuguese international was voted the PFA Fans Player of the Year for his superb debut season at Anfield but isn’t in Kenny Dalglish’s plans.

An influx of midfielders at Anfield has pushed Meireles down the pecking order and now Chelsea could swoop to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

Andre Villas-Boas is desperate to add a creative midfielder to his squad and has now put the 28-year-old alongside Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric as his top targets.

The Chelsea boss knows him well from their time together at Porto and is convinced that a partnering the two in midfield will add an extra dimension to the Blues attack.

He see’s Meireles as the perfect foil for the Croatian international and is prepared to pay £12 million to bring him to West London.

Dalglish needs to sell to balance the books after a £100 million spending spree which has seen Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson brought in at inflated prices.

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News of Chelsea’s interest and potential for Champions League football is sure to sway Meireles who knows he won’t see much game time at Anfield in the new campaign.

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Despite three home defeats already this season Arsene Wenger stated that he was delighted to be in the title mix going into the Christmas period. A title win is long overdue at the Emirates and Arsenal fans will be hoping that this team has the stomach to go all the way.

At FFC we have seen a mixed bag of articles which include Arsenal fans set for another transfer pantomime; Arsene Wenger should ignore Spanish advances, while the Barca draw could prove a blessing in disguise for Arsenal.

We also look at the best Arsenal articles around the web this week.

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TOP TEN Grand Entrances in Football sponsored by Heineken

The TEN Premier League Players of the season so far…in my view

Is there really no room at The Emirates for an England legend?

In light of George Graham’s comments, do Tottenham play more attractive football than Arsenal?

Another transfer pantomime with Arsene Wenger?

Wenger should continue to ignore bid, despite Jack’s progress

The wrong move for Arsenal and the player

Why for Arsenal it could ultimately prove a blessing in disguise

Will top clubs embrace idea to avoid the shackles of Platini’s proposal?

What to do with Ramsey and Wilshere?

The Top TEN Worst Football Fads Of Our Time

Have derby matches lost their edge?

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Best ARSENAL blogs around the web this week

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Arsenal’s home form will win us the league, is there a message in his message? – Le Grove

Few tips for Santa this Christmas, add yours…. – Highbury House

Poles Apart & Chamakh Needs To Be A Bully – A Cultured Left Foot

The XI That Got Away – Online Gooner

Exclusive: Arsenal shareholders quarterly letter / Danny Fiszman moves shares on! – Le Grove

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Holy Crap – it’s live fantasy football! Become part of Arsenal v Chelsea and play Picklive for FREE Watch and bet live – spices up any game!

France moved to within a point of qualifying for the last eight of Euro 2012 beating co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk after an electrical storm threatened to abandon the game.

Dutch Bjorn Kuipers was forced to bring a halt to proceedings in the fourth minute as a torrential downpour and lightening pounded the Donbass Arena and the pitch soon became unplayable amid concerns over the safety of  the players and fans. Play resumed an hour later but it took until the second half for France to make the breakthrough as Jeremy Menez scored from close range on 53 minutes before Yohan Cabaye sealed the win three minutes later with a neat finish. It was harsh on Ukraine who had chances of their own but paid the price for poor defending on both goals and must home England are held by Sweden to keep their hopes of progressing to the quarter finals ahead of their meeting with Roy Hodgson’s men on Tuesday.

Once the weather had calmed and the game was able to get underway but the delay didn’t seem to effect Laurent Blanc’s side as Karim Benzema tested Andriy Pyatov. Menez then thought he’d opened the scoring in the 16th minute after converting Frank Ribery’s pass but had strayed into an offside position before blasting over after being teed up by Ribery again before. A third chance came Menez’s way mid-way through the half as Ribery seized upon Anatoliy Tymoshchuk’s weak backpass and crossed for the winger who could only shoot straight at Pyatov’s legs.

Ukraine’s first clear sight of goal came in the 34th minute but Andriy Shevchenko couldn’t repeat his heroics of the win against Sweden lashing a half volley straight at Hugo Lloris after stealing in behind Adel Rami. Pyatov then ensured they would go in at halftime on level terms keeping out Phillipe Mexes’ header from Samir Nasri’s free kick. But he was beaten eight minutes after the break as Menez latched onto Benezema pass, drifted inside Yevhen Selin on the right and lashed a low effort inside the near post to give France the lead. That was doubled just three minutes later and Benzema was again the provider playing in Cabaye and the Newcastle man kept his composure to strike a low shot across Pyatov and into the bottom corner.

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A wonderful spell of fluid passing and movement ended with Cabaye cracking a fierce right footed volley off the post whilst Ukraine posed little threat to Les Bleus’ lead to win their first game in nine at a major tournament and put them in pole position to qualify from Group D ahead of their game with Sweden on Tuesday.

Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has been banned for life by FIFA after being found guilty of corruption allegations.Bin Hammam, the president of the Asian Football Confederation since 2002, had been accused of trying to bribe Caribbean football officials ahead of last month’s FIFA presidential election.

The ban was announced on Saturday by Petrus Damaseb, deputy chairman of FIFA’s ethics committee, after a two-day hearing in Switzerland.

Damaseb told reporters: “Bin Hammam is hereby banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life.”

The 62-year-old Bin Hammam, who did not attend the hearing, has pledged his innocence since being suspended from football-related activities on May 29.

He said through a statement on Friday that he expected a guilty verdict and that he would appeal.

Following the verdict, a spokesman of the Qatari said: “He (Bin Hammam) maintains his innocence. He will continue to fight his case through the legal routes that are open to him.”

The draw for the knockout stages of Champions League paired Tottenham Hotspur with AC Milan in the last 16, meaning that Spurs fans will travelling to the Italian city once more this season. Many Tottenham fans went to see Spurs be defeated by Inter Milan in an entertaining match earlier in the season that ended 4-3, with some respectability for Tottenham earned by Gareth Bale’s hat-trick. However, if you didn’t travel to Milan for the Champions League group stage game, here is a guide to the Italian city so that you can watch Tottenham in Milan this time round.

The first thing you’ll want to do is get your hands on those coveted tickets for the match in the San Siro. The first leg takes place in Milan on Tuesday 15th February and you can check ticket availability by clicking here. The stadium is located in the San Siro district, in the Western Milan area, about 5.5 km from the centre of Milan. You can take the Metro on Line MM1 to Molino Dorino or Line 16 on the tram from Cathedral Square.

If you go down the route of car hire then heading to Milan from Torino you need to proceed towards Venice after the pay-station, up to the intersection for ‘Milano Certosa’. From there follow the road signs to the stadium. If you’re travelling from Rome you need to take the ‘Tangenziale Ovest’ Bypass and get off the road at the Statale 11 Interchange. From there, follow the signs to the stadium. You can search for car hire options, alongside flights, by clicking here.

Buy AC Milan v Tottenham Champions League tickets here!

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There are a number of flight options available to you, although as the Champions League fixture approaches the demand for air travel to Milan is sure to increase. Flights are available from Luton, London Gatwick, Stanstead and Heathrow direct to Milan Malpensa Airport. You can decide to stay in Milan for the night and get a return flight back the next day so that you can explore the Italian city as well as watch the football.

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If you plan to stay in Milan for the night then you’ll need to book hotel accommodation alongside flights. The Football FanCast Travel Page is ideal for this as you can bring up all the hotels within a five mile radius of the San Siro. The available hotels are also listed in order of price so that your Italian football trip doesn’t have to cost you the earth. A handy map illustrates just where you’ll be staying, too, with Hotel San Siro Fiera on the doorstep of the AC Milan stadium.

So you can book football tickets, flights, hotel and accommodation for the AC Milan v Tottenham Champions League fixture with a couple of clicks of your mouse. This will ensure your trip to Italy is as simple as possible, then you just have to hope that Spurs do the business in the San Siro.

Schalke are set to win the race to sign out-of-contract Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou, according to Mirror Football.

The Ivory Coast international was largely a bit-part player at the west London club in 2011-12, but did get more chances to play once Roberto Di Matteo took over from Andre Villas Boas.

Despite this, with the Blues on a recruitment drive to bring in a host of new young players to Stamford Bridge this summer, Kalou has seemingly been overlooked and has not been offered a new deal.

A number of Premier League sides have been speculated as having an interest in the African attacker, whilst a move back to former club Feyenoord has also been rumoured to be on the cards.

However, Schalke are thought to have negotiated terms with Kalou, who will move to the Bundesliga club once the transfer window opens.

The Gelsenkirchen club are looking to bolster their attack after seeing legendary Spanish forward Raul leave the club this summer.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Transfer rumours are infinite, some of them materialise from thin air and the majority of them disappear before they’ve really had time to grow. A tiny percentage are actually based in truth. Whether they are dismissed out of hand by those alleged to be involved or are just too far-fetched or tenuous to ever really be believed, the survival rate of the football rumour is like that of baby turtles on a beach, few of them are hardy enough to make it. Every summer however, there are those rumours that persist. Like little Rambo turtles, they are unstoppable, gaining momentum all the time.

So, which are the ten likeliest transfers left to take place this summer? The return of the Fabregas to Barcelona story has been a constant and is hotting up nicely. The Nasri to a Manchester club noises are growing ever louder. The Modric to Chelsea grumblings continue and the flight of Carlos Tevez is an absolute mess that could go either way. These stories are much more than just tittle tattle, there is a chance they might actually happen.

Much of the summer’s business has quickly trundled to completion. Connor Wickham, Ashley Young and Charlie Adam are amongst those already settling into their new socks and surroundings, futures certain, ambitions stated. But there is always a late flurry, so what do we still expect to happen? Who are the names on everybody’s lips and where are they heading?

Click on Gary Cahill below to see the 10 likely transfers this summer

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Arsenal moved to the top of the Premier League table thanks to a 2-1 victory at home to Fulham, while Chelsea had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Everton at Stamford Bridge.

Samir Nasri put the Gunners in front on 14 minutes but they were pegged back on the half-hour mark when Diomansy Kamara levelled matters for the visitors.

Nasri grabbed his second goal of the game 15 minutes from time to take Arsene Wenger's men above Manchester United and into top spot.

Chelsea looked to be on their way to three points thanks to Didier Drogba's 41st-minute penalty but Jermaine Beckford struck five minutes from time to earn David Moyes' men a deserved point.

Manchester City remain in the title hunt as Carlos Tevez's 10th goal of the season helped them to a narrow 1-0 win over Bolton at Eastlands.

Tottenham's run of four straight Premier League wins came to an end as they drew 1-1 at Birmingham. Sebastien Bassong put Spurs in front but a late header from Craig Gardner salvaged a point for the Blues.

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Elsewhere, Blackburn bounced back from their 7-1 defeat at Manchester United to send Wolves bottom with a 3-0 win. David Dunn, Brett Emerton and Ryan Nelsen got the goals.

Wigan fought out a 2-2 draw at home to Stoke with all the goals coming in the first half.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email