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.