Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: "We created an amazing amount of chances and to only score two is a bit disappointing.
"We should have rammed home our advantage in the first half, and in the first 15 minutes of the second half they had three great chances and missed them all, so we rode our luck.
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"When they put (Per) Mertesacker up and kept tossing the ball into the box, you never know what's going to happen but we coped well with that, (Chris) Smalling was fantastic in that period and we managed to see it out."
Victory was crucial after City earlier beat Tottenham 3-2 with Mario Balotelli's last-minute penalty and Ferguson added: "Winning after City had won was the important thing but we've done it in the right way.
"We were really adventurous, positive and had a great belief in ourselves."
Arsene Wenger Reaction:
"When it was 1-1 it looked like we would win but in the end one tactical mistake lost us the game," he told Sky Sports.
"I do not want to dwell too much on that now but one second of inattention can cost you."
Arsene Wenger's decision to replace the excellent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrei Arshavin.
Despite his admission, Wenger went on to defend his decision to bring off Oxlade-Chamberlain in a frosty post-match press conference.
"I can understand that the fans are upset about the substitution, especially when it doesn't work, but he (Oxlade-Chamberlain) had started to fatigue," he said.
"He was sick in the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team.
"You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who's captain of his country and they are querying the substitution? Let's be serious.
"I've been a manager for 30 years and have made 50,000 substitutions. I do not have to justify every decision I make to you (the Press). I stand up for it."
The Frenchman concedes the result leaves his team in real danger of not making the top four this season, adding: "It leaves us in a very difficult position. It's a game we couldn't afford to lose."
Wenger thought his players took too long to hit their stride but was pleased with their display in the second half, despite the result.
"Overall I would say we had a great second half," he added. "We had a difficult first half where we were a bit nervous.
"In the second half I thought we had chances to win the game. We made a defensive mistake on the second goal but overall we had a great second half. We created chances, we were a bit unlucky.
"You could see we played under pressure today and it took us 45 minutes to get into the game. In the second half when we played with more freedom we were very dangerous."
