On Saturday, 23 February 2008, Arsenal's title challenge was derailed after Eduardo suffered a shocking injury at the hands of Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor. The Croatian striker's ankle was broken by a mistimed challenge and with Birmingham grabbing a late equaliser, Manchester United cut Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premiership to three points.

Fast forward to Saturday, 27 February 2010: Arsenal trail league leaders Chelsea by six points, but in the day's early kick off, Manchester City take all three points at Stamford Bridge as two Chelsea players are sent off. The Gunners travel to Stoke knowing a win would cut the their rival's lead to just three points. After an even first half which sees a sublime Bendtner header cancel out Stoke's opener (which dishearteningly comes about through a Delap long throw), Aaron Ramsey's leg is broken by a mistimed challenege from the Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross.

This time however, the Arsenal players are not going to let a horrific injury to a team-mate be the defining moment of their season. Instead it becomes the moment that allows them to go on and win the game. Instead of falling out of the title race, Arsenal have somehow managed to fall back into it. If Ramsey's broken leg can serve one purpose, maybe it's that it can be the inspiration for a monumental push towards the Premier League Summit, and finally Arsenal can be rewarded with the league title that they should have had two years ago.

Arsenal have released the following statement regarding Ramsey: “During yesterday’s match against Stoke City, Aaron Ramsey sustained fractures to the tibia and fibula in his right leg. Yesterday evening he underwent surgery.

"The operation successfully reduced the fractures and whilst it is too soon to state an exact timescale for recovery, Aaron will certainly miss the remainder of this season. Our thoughts are with Aaron at this time and everyone at the Club wishes him all the best in making as speedy a return to action as possible.”

At least the words 'career threatening' haven't been used. There was a genuine fear that Eduardo would never play again, and whilst he still hasn't quite recaptured the form that made his injury in 2008 such a devastating loss to his team, we should be happy that he's able to run, let alone play football. The sad thing for Aaron is that, at just nineteen, he needs to be playing and developing, not enduring surgery and physiotherapy. His seemingly good natured demeanour accompanies a precocious talent, and not only will he be missed on the pitch, no doubt he will be missed in the dressing room too. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't wish him a speedy recovery.

Having examined the incident, most people have come to the conclusion that there was no malice or intent in the challenge. They're probably right. It happens very quickly, and seems more like a coming together than anything else. Shawcross is visibly shaken and leaves the field in tears, and whilst his intention may have been to go in hard, it seems unlikely that he had any intention of injuring anyone. Stoke team-mates have spoken out in his defence with the usual fluff: "He's an honest guy"... "He's not got a bad bone in his body"... "I'd trust him over John Terry any day". That settles it then.

Well actually it doesn't. Shawcross has previous. He injured erstwhile Gunner and fox-in-the-box Francis Jeffers (after he had left Arsenal); Jeffers suffered ligament damage and was out for some time. In last season's fixture at Stoke, it was Shawcross who stood on Adebayor's ankle, seemingly in retaliation for an earlier challenge, and it was some time before the Togolese striker played again. I'll reiterate my belief that the Stoke defender did not go into the challenge with the intention of hurting anyone, but this kind of incident is symptomatic of the way that teams try play against Arsenal these days.

It is a widely held belief amongst fans, the media, players and managers that Arsenal 'don't like it up 'em'. If your team consists of eleven men who have more in common genetically with a gorilla than homo sapiens, then to take points off Arsenal you'll need to kick them off the park. That's great, football is a physical game, but if teams keep adopting this overly physical approach then someone will get badly hurt. People wonder why Arsenal seem to suffer a perennial injury crisis. Maybe it's because every other game they play involves getting the crap kicked out of them. Ramsey is the third player in recent memory to suffer a major leg break. There was the aforementioned Eduardo incident, as well as Diaby against Sunderland, in a meaningless end of season match (a fact that did not stop a Sunderland player from lunging in wildly on Diaby's ankle). Wenger said in his post-match interview that he does not believe in coincidences. Could there be a link between the number of bad injuries that Arsenal suffer and the way that the media and managers egg teams on to combat Arsenal's passing and movement with a tactic of playing the man first, then the ball? Obviously no one wants to see referees blowing up every 30 seconds, but there has to be a happy middle ground where fouls are punished appropriately and above all, consistently.

The game itself kind of rather paled into insignificance, but when the dust settles, Arsenal will be happy with the three points. Bendtner took his goal well, and Fàbregas grabbed two assists and a goal to further cement his claim for best midfielder in the premiership this season. Eboué put in a decent shift on the wing, and after the shambolic defending in the first ten minutes, Campbell and Vermaelen were hardly troubled.

What was really encouraging though was the spirit shown by the players in the wake of Ramsey's injury. The sense of determination and passion was palpable, and the celebrations that followed the two goals that sealed the victory demonstrated the kind of unity that you need to win a title. The post match huddle was a tradition during Arsenal's unbeaten season, and it was in evidence again on Saturday. There will be a real sense of belief amongst these players that this can be their year, and with Birmingham the highest placed amongst their next five opponents, why shouldn't there be?

After initially feeling shocked and upset by poor Ramsey's terrible injury, these emotions were replaced by one I've not experienced in a long time: pride. I know, I was surprised too, but there was no mistaking it. With pride comes hope. Arsenal have to kick on and win some games, or all this endeavour will have been for nought. Aaron deserves better than that.