Sir Alex Ferguson was philosophical in defeat following
Arsenal's smash and grab 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium.
The Reds' boss saw his side go down to two late goals from
substitute Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry, who headed the
winner in the last minute of stoppage time.
The result prevented United from moving further ahead of nearest
challengers Chelsea, who lost 2-0 at Liverpool on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Sir Alex remained upbeat after the game and insists
strong lessons will be learnt from the experience.
"There is big disappointment in the dressing room but when I look
at things now I think the result and the experience of losing so
late will be good for us," he told Sky Sports.
"We have some important away games to come at places like
Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City, and if we get into that
winning position again we won't be making mistakes like we made
today again - I can tell you that for sure."
The Reds took the lead on 53 minutes through Wayne Rooney, who
recorded his first headed goal of his United career. The visitors
led for the next half an hour before van Persie pounced for the
equaliser and Henry struck the final blow.
"We've lost two goals from positions where we didn't think we'd
lose them," admitted the Sir Alex. "But that's football.
"After controlling the first half, we were in a good position and
defending well. We had some good possession and probably should
have done better with it, but these games are always difficult and
you can never really dominate for 90 minutes in matches like
this.
"After we scored we sat back about 10 yards and their long balls up
towards Henry and Adebayor began to force us back a little bit. But
I still couldn't see anything that was going to disturb us.