The Ecuardorian headed United in front from Ryan Giggs' pinpoint cross just before the break, but Arsenal hit back through Robin van Persie's precision finish.
With just nine minutes to go Valencia drove at the Gunners before laying the ball to Danny Welbeck, who gleefully swept it home.
United are now three points behind City, who beat Tottenham 3-2 in the day's early kick-off.
Status quo
Just when it looked like United might fluff their lines in the great Manchester versus London re-run a Mancunian stepped up to keep the status quo.
Back in late summer the Reds were completely unfazed by their role in Manchester’s bid to confirm the city as the capital of football.
Having seen the Blues dispatch Spurs comprehensively 5-1 at White Hart Lane they took the wind right out of the Blues’ sails by destroying Arsenal 8-2.
Now six months on and in the reverse fixtures United must have been on a roller-coaster ride if they viewed the Etihad Stadium return.
In the end City snatched it against Tottenham to throw down the gauntlet again to the champions.
How they responded to the challenge this time was going to be even more significant in the title race and City will know for sure now that the Old Trafford challenge is not going to lie down and go meekly away.
On this occasion it was more muted but still the champions carried the bigger threat.
They had to settle for a single goal lead at the interval but it was so simply created that Arsenal must have feared they could be undone easily again in the second 45 minutes and it was a timely reminder to the Reds how vulnerable this latest Gunners creation is.
After a big hoof from the home defence United swept the ball back in via Giggs and Valencia rose at the far post to head the breakthrough with seconds to go.
With Van Persie around you can never be completely comfortable but the Emirates goal machine blew Arsenal’s first golden chance of the game after 51 minutes.
His penalty miss at Old Trafford had signalled the Gunners sensational decline when that match was poised at 1-0.
This time after Chris Smalling had slipped in possession Tomas Rosicky snatched up the loose ball and fed the Dutchman but he sidestepped effortlessly to create an open goal but then placed his opportunity wide.
It was a completely different Arsenal in the early stages of the second half and Aaron Ramsey fired over as the Reds battled on the back foot.
They survived a penalty shout when Patrice Evra elbow blocked another Ramsey shot and then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain slipped his chance wide after Koscielny’s powerful surge.
United finally managed to alleviate some of the pressure with a Danny Welbeck chance.
The Mancunian was far too fast for the lumbering Per Mertesacker but after the striker rounded the keeper his rolled effort towards goal lacked pace so even the German could recovery to clear before it crossed the line.
What had been a pretty tepid first 45 minutes became a frenzied match you couldn’t take your eyes off.
You would never have imagined it from the first half evidence but an Arsenal goal looked inevitable and they hit the Reds in a counter-attack straight from United’s book.
After Rafael was disposed in the Gunners’ penalty area the Londoners swept forward and the end product was for Van Persie, inevitably, to squeeze home a left foot shot.
But just as inevitable as a goal from the Dutchman is a fightback from United when it least looks on the cards.
With Arsenal on the front foot and looking the most likely winners the Reds gallantly shrugged off on the pressure to provide the sucker punch.
First half goalscorer Valencia wriggled his way in the Gunners box and set up a ball for Welbeck to crash in the winner.
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I Can breath again.
Dirty tactics from Arsenal even by their standards but a great win just the same.
It is worrying that we tend to sit back with a second half lead, we gave them far too many chances after the break.
Arsenal today were more dangerous than stoke! I felt They needed guns to kill our player... GGMU
Game on. Your move City.
Valencia MOM again. Evans proving his doubters wrong. Carrick proving his doubters wrong.
We win against Arsenal, AGAIN!
Rooney: Although he played a good game, he lacks the spark.
Welbeck: Although scoring at the highest level, still needs a few lessons on the training ground.
Phil Jones: Get well soon. We need you!
Wenger: Thank yoiu for taking your best player off the pitch, and bringing on Arshavin!
great result ... the pressure is on city,...rthe was lucky..... we will win the premx
Bitters berties ! we are still going to Emirates stadium!
Scrapy game... United played well. JONES IS NEXT OWEN HARGREAVES for injury..
well played united. well played the ref for city
I was expecting a thrashing from them gooners -- at least half the number of goals we pumped into the net last time! Good show lads, City are you getting the warning loud and clear?
I would like to know when all the city fans commenting here started supporting City. By any chance is it when they suddenly started to buy glory? Chelsea did it and had limited success and now its City's turn lets see if they actually succeed. No past. No future. Nice one United and unlucky Arsenal.
Not keeping pace with City, hanging on to their coat tails more like!!!!!!
Hello people......Dont misunderstand this because The White Pele (as T&C calls him) is a better Footballer than Danny Welbeck, but Danny will score goals consistently once up, running and playing......ANYHOW my point being...Sir Alex "buckles" to Waynes pay demand of over 200K-a-week!!!!!!!!! 200 Thousand Pound A WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, but upset that Danny wants 60K-a-week..WTF????????????????? Danny your goal this evening alone was worth a few bob towards Man Utd retaining the League Trophy
Wow that was fun.
I guess that the cross by Giggs proves that he is totally washed up, I mean did you see how hard Valencia had to work to score that goal? Nothing but class.
My heart is warmed by the return of the real Valencia.
Thought that the Evra contributed nicely today.
The game was on Fox in my area which is unusual but say what you want about the Americans they do know how cover sporting events. Really good show and one of the cover guys was named Piers Morgan and he was totally over the top.
Reminded me of danny.
Rooney is just not making a difference for a player of his calibre. JE was steady.
Welbeck reminds me of well, one of those wide receivers that casually outruns the cover and one hands the ball for the TD. He's going to entertain us for a long time.
Hope that Jones is not too seriously hurt. I think that a lot of these foot and ankle injury are due to the light weight footwear. These skinny little boots offer absolutely no protection
Jan. 22.three points out my oh my this is going to fun.
Enjoy your day everyone,
r7
I don’t know how much longer my heart can stand it, but it is still such a joy to be a United supporter! Not just about the result, but I found the game, itself, very exciting and entertaining.
Now come on, fellow Reds, put your hands up all those of you who
feared the worst when you saw our starting centre midfield pairing? Then Scholes and Park adding to it as substitutes! Talk about ageism and experience!
However, what a damn good choice by the gaffer? With our present midfield problem, what we lacked in speed of the legs, we more than made up for it with speed of the brain! (I’m not sure into what category I should place Park?) I still trust SAF to strengthen this particular area during the summer.
Our Paddy was voted MOM on SKY TV. I won’t argue with that, although another couple of our players ran him close. We all have our favourites and it is always fun picking our own particular winner.
Hope the injuries to Jones, Nani and Rooney are not too serious?
As usual, what wonderful support from our magnificent traveling fans! Glory be, I wish I could still travel with you as much as I used to do. You are sheer class!
In conclusion I have a message for that other lot - Hey, Bitter Mercenaries, you can’t shake us off all that easy!
United ‘til I die!
Big 3 points but we made really hard work of that today. Almost every player was brilliant, but Valencia was better than brilliant. We've got a tough run of games now just hope injuries don't cost us.
A win at the Emirates is always difficult to achieve, so we should be well pleased with the result. Although we lost our way a bit in the second half, we had the edge throughout, particularly wide left and right, where Valencia, Nani, Evra, Rafael and Giggs all teased the Arsenal defence unmercilessly. Danny Welbeck should have done a lot better on a few occasions when one-on-one but his overall workrate and linkage play makes it diificult to be harsh on him. It was good to see Patrice Evra playing effectively from both offensive and defensive standpoints - even T&C couldn't criticise him, could he?
Giggsy, it was Arsenal playing in red today ;)
A great game to watch, especially the second half. Valencia was yet again immense, Welbeck ran his socks off, and with a bit more luck/better finishing could have had a couple more. Apart from Rooney, who was a mess again, the whole team performed very well.Hopefully the injuries to Jones and Nani aren't too serious, although Jones' didn't look good. Rooney needs to be benched, he looks like he just can't be arsed any more. He really was our worst player out there today. He's got worse since his Xmas "incident" and Fergie's subsequent wrath. Defending was good, apart from a couple of slips, Evra had one of his best games in a long time IMO. Lindegaard inspires confidence in our defending, so keep him there.Another strong performance from Carrick, and even Giggs did well for the most part. Great result and well deserved, we played well.
Great game. Evra was Man of the Match for me - good to see him getting his form back. This was supposed to be a banana skin - so very happy with the three points. It will e interesting to see how City handle their trip to the Emirates - they only scraped a 1-0 at home against Arsenal.
Evra was IMMENSE . Valencia excellent . Evans , Smalling , Carrick , Welbeck , Rooney and Nani , very good . Rafael , Giggs , Lindegaard , good . SAF : average . Why ? replacing Nani ( forced ) with Scholes was not really clever . Park for Rafael was also not good . Could have brought on Berbatov , Hernandez or Fabio . Scholes with Giggs , Park and Carrick together made the midfield look like a camp for the AGED . A great win . I hope the injuries to Rooney , Nani and Jones are not serious . City were lucky and Balotelli should have been SLAPPED on the face by the ref THEN sent off . His challenge on Parker was DISGUSTING to put it mildly .
A good win today against a dirty arsenal team a great belief is still in evidence stockport ciddy whatch out you were lucky today balotele is a headcase and ciddy should have had lescot sent off for gbh let the battle comense .... Baz the red manc Denton
My man of the match, Sir Alex !
He beat Arsenal at their own game.
The refereeing left a little to be desired at times. Song threw an arm into Rooney's face and escaped with just a lecture which seemed even more bizarre when Mike Dean booked Ramsey a minute later for a simple pull on Ryan Gigg's sleeve. That gave Song licence to continue to clatter into players until he (Inevitably) got booked for a challenge on Welbeck about 50 minutes later. When Ramsey elbowed Rooney in the back after about 80 minutes, Mike Dean again preferred to talk him to politely, rather than dispense a second yellow. In a game, where there was so little for him to do, Mike Dean didn't do to well and it is easy to understand how managers and players get frustrated by the inconsistency of refs.
Great performance. Great result. Everyone played well, although I still despair with both of our fullbacks' starting positions.
We played some great stuff in the first half. Carrick and Giggs dominated midfield. The second half Arsenal played a lot more down the flanks and bypassed our central midfielders. That made it a bit end-to-end.
Two good goals and we should maybe have had a couple more. Welbeck should have done better on a couple of occasions.
Overall, a great three points.
FANTASTIC RESULT
entertaining game some top performances and some less so.
evras best game in 3 seasons
evans and smalling had solid games, carrick did his job very well as did rafael and valencia.
nani mullered the arsenal fullback time and time again only to squander the advantage .
giggs made on decent pass the whole game and at times he was very very very wasteful.
wellbeck could easily have scored four but should have had at least 3