You may not be familiar with what happens when someone breaks a leg during a football match. You may have never broken a bone in your body but one paper has helped you to understand that painful process. If you do not know how a leg looks when it snaps under a tackle, get your hands on a copy of the Sunday Times from the 28th February. Turn to page nine and you cannot fail to notice a picture of Ryan Shawcross tackling Aaron Ramsey.

Under the headline of ‘Ramsey’s horror injury,’ as if the whole incident would be something to ‘enjoy’ in the sort of horror movie shown around midnight on Channel Five, you are treated to a still of that moment. That shot gives you a graphic impression of what happened when the bottom half of Ramsey’s leg goes the other way from the rest of his body. If you are not sure where your ankle and shins are on your body, the picture contains a helpful white circle to help you focus on the key area of action. It is the sort of picture that causes you to wince in pain. That picture has that shock value although we must not forget that there is a young player facing a lengthy lay off on the sidelines with the sobering prospect that it will be a long time before he reaches match fitness.

(Ed’s note – I’m not 100% certain as I don’t buy newspapers anymore, but I imagine this is the photo to which Tim is referring.

I know that newspapers need to keep people interested in their editions. I also know that reading an average edition of the Sunday Times is hard work on many a Sunday, with endless supplements covering everything from which super car could I buy (in my dreams) or whether I have invested in the right ISA. However, I am not sure whether that picture of Ramsey’s leg snapping away like a twig in a gale really helps you in your love for Arsenal or the national game. Despite my shock, I have to admit that I did slightly expect a picture of this latest horrific injury involving another young Arsenal player.

There are some fans that seem to enjoy the opportunity to be shocked or have the opportunity to wallow in someone else’s misfortune. I suspect that they jumped at the opportunity to catch the comprehensive footage of Eduardo’s horrific injury that was played out at St Andrews nearly two years ago. I am guessing that there is a web page that is stationed somewhere across the information super highway so you can watch Ryan Shawcross on Aaron Ramsey again and again although I struggle to understand why there is a demand. Why do some people enjoy this sort of footage? I will never know.

I was watching this Stoke v Arsenal match via the plasma television of a Birmingham pub. After an afternoon watching a fun but mistake-littered showdown between Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic, I had moved across Britain’s second city to see an old friend to enjoy a bit of televised football. When Shawcross tackled Ramsey, the banter between us abruptly stopped.

The jokes about the misfortunes of John T and Ashley C disintegrated into worried concern about why Fabregas was sadly shaking his head and Sol Campbell was angrily remonstrating with the referee. Something was badly wrong. To their credit, the BBC and Sky did not repeat the incident via their slow motion cameras whilst Ramsey was waiting to be packed off into the waiting ambulance. Watching the whole of the ground sadly clapping Ramsey off the pitch told us that there are some issues that transcend football rivalries. It was a very sad sight bringing back memories of earlier incidents.

On the day of that Eduardo tackle, I had been trying to entertain a friend around the chocolate heaven of Cadbury World. Despite my subtle hints, he has been lukewarm about a trip the Birmingham v Arsenal so we found ourselves in little bubble cars shaped like Cream Eggs, and trying to sculpture our names in chocolate. I had come ‘cold’ to that night’s Match of the Day so was unprepared for the solemn tones of the commentators and the sight of Arsenal players who were visibly shaken around a withering Eduardo in excruciating pain that few of us had ever experienced. Those images had stayed in my mind and dramatically resurfaced on this Saturday night in 2010.

To be watching a bright young player being carried out of a stadium with the help of an ambulance and an oxygen mask was a sobering sight. Making endless jokes about the various liaisons involving Chelsea players and talking about handshakes that never were as if these incidents were of the same level as UN diplomatic snubs seemed slightly false. We love a little bit of scandal and the Chelsea juggernaut was turning football into a sport version of Hello magazine. Aaron Ramsey’s injury brought us back to reality and If ever an Arsenal victory meant something more than just three points, the win against Stoke was just that.

Cesc Fabregas’ penalty celebrations told us to whom he was dedicating his goal. I was also extremely impressed at Arsenal’s mental strength throughout this game, and how this team managed to maintain a sense of sanity as one of their teammates was being transported off to hospital in eerily similar circumstances to another horrific injury of two years previously. Outsiders have seemed to question the togetherness of an Arsenal team during the last couple of years. This match against Stoke taught us that those people have been wrong with their very quick denunciations of the Gunners as a team of fragile international starlets who hate to play their football in the cold uplands of northern England.

The arguments will continue about the incident but I am left hoping that Aaron Ramsey recovers from this horrific injury. To see a young player being transported off the pitch with the aid of a stretcher and an oxygen mask is a sight that none of us want to see in football. However, I have discarded the graphic newspaper pictures and refocused on the important things associated with football rather than the tawdry scandals that always result when football meets showbusiness.