In the final game of a thrilling Saturday’s action, Arsenal won away to Stoke to give themselves a great opportunity of fighting for a title they thought was long gone.
Stoke opened up the scoring with just eight minutes gone. Shawcross latched onto a long-throw from Delap and flicked onto Pugh at the far post who nodded in from point blank range.
Bendtner headed in a great equalizer on the half hour mark after a lovely cross from Fabregas but the game then took a sickening turn in the second half.
What first appeared to be a tough but harmless challenge on Ramsey by Shawcross soon turned ugly. The faces of the players and the referees were straight out of a Munch masterpiece as they couldn’t bear to bring themselves to look at their fallen comrade.
The medics were called on and after being lifted onto a stretcher the young, talented Ramsey was escorted straight into the back of an ambulance. The injury was so bad that on Sky’s live coverage they refused to show any replays of it, but with Sky Plus and a morbid fascination, you could replay the challenge. Not much could be seen from the TV angle, but the collision was catastrophic and at first glance it appeared that his ankle was….well, to put it mildly, more floppy than god intended.
More will be revealed later though. As of yet we are still unsure of the severity but we can only hope that it isn’t career threatening. Shawcross saw red for the challenge but even he looked upset as he left the field.
After the long stoppage was over Arsenal set about trying to win the game and they took the lead when Fabregas converted a penalty after Pugh handballed in the box. Vermaelen made it 3-1 deep into stoppage time when he passed into an empty net.
A great win for Arsenal but one that was certainly overshadowed by the injury to young Aaron Ramsey.
