Am I the only one who saw it as a tragic coming together by two players fully committed to playing the ball rather than a studs up deliberate foul?

Shawcross attempted to kick the ball and missed. He didn't lunge two footed, it wasn't from behind or a stamp, he went for the ball. Arsene's comments afterwards seem to imply that football should become a non-contact sport with players meekly losing possession and not bothering to try to regain it.

It was a full blooded challenge, but it was an accident, a football injury.

IMHO

It was a rash challenge but i agree he had no malice.
Martin Keown made a good point on motd 2 last night, pointing out the sheer sizer difference between the Stoke players and the Arsenal players, lets be fair Ramsey and Shawcross going in for a challenge like that is a complete mismatch.
It wouldn't have happened if that was Drogba or someon with some meat on them, also if you look at the incident in super slow mo, you will notice that Ramseys foot is in a twisting your ankle type of position before contact is made which will have made it worse for Aaron.
All the best to the lad....

I don't think he meant him any harm but I think they need to stop players lashing out with their legs as injuries like this are becoming more common, and I don't think it is a surprise that Arsenal have had their share as they are such a fast paced team who have young players who just dance past defenders.

If Shawcross had not made any effort to regain possession he'd have been accused of not trying or bottling it. He went for the ball in my opinion. If players no longer try to go for the ball in 50-50 situations then it may as well be called ballet.

If Shawcross had not made any effort to regain possession he'd have been accused of not trying or bottling it. He went for the ball in my opinion. If players no longer try to go for the ball in 50-50 situations then it may as well be called ballet.

I don't think he would have been accused of that, and even if he had it isn't a good defence for breaking someones leg. I think he went for the ball, but he was way too slow and was never going to make it. I have nothing against the lad and don't think he should be singled out, I just think it needs thinking about.

I don't want to see great tackles leaving the game, but maybe it is time for tackles where one foot has to stay on the ground... I dunno. Maybe it's worth seeing if these sorts of injuries keep happening, but I think it such a shame to have great young players losing a year or more of their short career.

It looked to me as Ramseys ankle was turning over before Shawcross connected with him,there didn't look any malice and I think Shawcross's momentem plus Ramseys ankle allready going over caused the injury.

I feel for Shawcross and I'm an arsenal fan! Arguably the red card was a little harsh! It was not a dirty tackle, it's just a case of two players legitimately going for a 50-50 and one came off far worse! it could have so easily gone the other way or had no injury at all and there would have been no free kick!
He was visibly shaken by it and i don't blame him but it's just made worse for arsenal because it has happened to two other players not too long ago.
Hopefully Shawcross will get his England chance and Ramsey will be back playing soon...Job Done! :D

I feel for Shawcross and I'm an arsenal fan! Arguably the red card was a little harsh! It was not a dirty tackle, it's just a case of two players legitimately going for a 50-50 and one came off far worse! it could have so easily gone the other way or had no injury at all and there would have been no free kick!
He was visibly shaken by it and i don't blame him but it's just made worse for arsenal because it has happened to two other players not too long ago.
Hopefully Shawcross will get his England chance and Ramsey will be back playing soon...Job Done! :D

Quoted for correctness.

No injury probably no free kick. Football is a contact game and accidents can happen. Very unfortunate for both of the lads, but it happens. Hope Ramsey recovers well and that people leave Shawcross alone to get on with his career.

Is there anyone out there who thinks Shawcross was being malicious?

I dug up Wenger's comments from a coupe of months ago following Gallas' challenge on Bolton's Mark Davies.... Remember that one?

There was a bit of an over reaction with the way it was treated, yes. If it is a bad, malicious tackle I can understand that it is shown every half an hour, but the way that happened, it can happen every game.

I said after the game if Gallas has injured the player, we are sorry, we will have a look at the tackle and if it is malicious we will come out and make a statement.

We looked at it carefully and we saw that it was just a mistimed tackle

Was this a worse challenge than Shawcross' that was just lucky not to break his leg? Conspiracy? No, football.

There have been far worse tackles, Shawcross' was not a bad tackle. If it had been he who had his leg broken Ramsey would have been vilified. In legitimate 50-50's like that anything can happen and sometimes honest decent players get hurt and its not nice to see but it's equally not nice to see players demonised for going in honestly for 50-50 challenges and ending up injuring a player.

The demons are those who raise studs, deliberately stamp on players and deliberately hurt other players. Missed timed tackles do happen and if they're genuine mistakes... fine forget and move on but the dishonest should be punished! Should a professional footballer who plays day in day out for a living be mis timing a tackle?

It looked to me as Ramseys ankle was turning over before Shawcross connected with him,there didn't look any malice and I think Shawcross's momentem plus Ramseys ankle allready going over caused the injury.I agree. I think it was just an unfortunate accident.

ive seen much worse tackles, Shawcross is a player who loves a tackle and goes in 100% for every tackle

feel sorry for ramsey but unfortunatly these things happen in football sometimes

also a message for Arsen Wenger - people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones

Don't think that he went in to hurt Ramsey on this instance.

Don't agree with the MOTD pundits either who say that Shawcross doesn't have a history of being 'that type of player'. He almost certainly intended to hurt Jeffers when hr broke his ankle when stoke played at Hillsborough the other year.

If they were boxers Ramsey would be a lightweight and Shawcross would be a heavyweight, like i said in another post, if that had been Drogba, Diop, Knight etc clashing like that with Shawcross the consequences would have been far less serious.

Don't think that he went in to hurt Ramsey on this instance.

Don't agree with the MOTD pundits either who say that Shawcross doesn't have a history of being 'that type of player'. He almost certainly intended to hurt Jeffers when hr broke his ankle when stoke played at Hillsborough the other year.

they were very 'firm' shall we say, when they played wednesday at hillsborough in their promotion season

i remember one of them 'doing' mcallister as well

I dug up Wenger's comments from a coupe of months ago following Gallas' challenge on Bolton's Mark Davies.... Remember that one?

Wenger is undoubtedly a hypocrite at times, which undermimes a lot of the points he makes. He sounded purely ridiculous when he criticised Wolves for playing an understrength team when he did the same thing in a crucial (for Arsenal's opponents) in a Champs League match a few months before. The Shawcross/Ramsey incident was unfortunate and nothing more in my opinion.