Premier League: Arsenal 1 Manchester United 2

A late goal from Danny Welbeck saw Manchester United edge past Arsenal 2-1 and keep in touch with title rivals Manchester City.

After Robin Van Persie had cancelled out Antonio Valencia’s first half goal at the Emirates, Welbeck struck nine minutes from time to secure the three points for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.

The result pulls the defending champions to within three points of title rivals City, with Arsenal remaining in fifth place following a third straight league defeat.

Already missing several key defender, United suffered an early blow when Phil Jones was stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.

Gradually, after a lukewarm first 30 minutes, the visitors began to assert more authority over proceedings.

Wojciech Szczesny was forced into a good save when Nani sent a firm shot towards the bottom corner after Evra had shaken off Alex Song in the box.

In first half stoppage time, they made their possession count. Giggs, playing with the energy of a midfielder 15 years younger than his 38, overlapped beyond Nani and whipped an inch-perfect cross to the back post that Valencia rose to head past a stranded Szczesny.

Robin van Persie blew a golden opportunity to equalise for the hosts, conspiring to blaze his shot wide from 10 yards out after Tomas Rosicky had capitalised on Chris Smalling’s slip in possession.

Aaron Ramsey then fired over the crossbar from a good position after skilfully working his way into the penalty area as the Gunners continued to fail to test goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.

The more men Arsenal committed forward, of course, the more potent Manchester United’s counter-attack was likely to become and Wenger’s team had to survive one such close encounter after 63 minutes.

Latching on to a clearance behind Per Mertesacker, Welbeck just did enough to poke the ball past Szczesny, but the German defender had enough pace to chase back and clear the trickling shot away.

An excellent challenge from Koscielny spoiled another such United break and launched one of Arsenal’s own.

Impressive youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain broke inside into space and slipped a through ball into the path of van Persie, who made up for his earlier miss with an inch-perfect finish across goal.

Surprisingly, Oxlade-Chamberlain was substituted shortly after the goal, to the displeasure of the Arsenal supporters, who were perhaps further antagonised by the introduction Russian Andrei Arshavin.

The decision was to backfire badly. Arshavin was guilty of some woeful defending as Valencia skipped past the Russian and into the penalty area, exchanging a quick one-two with substitute Park Ji-Sung before teeing up Welbeck, who sealed the points from 10 yards.