On the same ground where Arsenal had strolled to victory a fortnight earlier, Manchester United made rather harder work of defeating a characteristically spirited Charlton Athletic, but got there in the end with goals in the last 10 minutes from Ryan Giggs and the substitute Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Missing the flu-stricken Juan Sebastian Veron and beginning with an odd tactical formation featuring Diego Forlan in midfield, the visitors were behind at half-time to a blinding drive by Claus Jensen before recovering for a first away win in the Premiership to add to their success in Leverkusen last Tuesday.

Paul Scholes, who must have been close to making medical history by returning 18 days after an exploratory knee operation, and Giggs were their outstanding performers, and Van Nistelrooy – a demoralising figure for a tired team to see emerging from the dug-out – chipped in with his fifth goal in four games.

If Charlton felt his header in stoppage time had completed their misery, they had yet to check the rest of the day's results, a combination of which sent them to 19th place in the table. It was a fourth successive home defeat, and while the programme becomes a little easier now, the need to get results is more critical.

"I've told the players that no one ever said it would be easy," said their manager, Alan Curbishley. "They've had all the plaudits for four or five years and now it's up to them to push themselves through it." Doing so in the same league as the Arsenals, Liverpools and Uniteds becomes harder by the season. Curbishley's assessment that United would still challenge for the Premiership and the Champions' League would have been generous on the evidence of the first half alone, but as the game progressed they slowly began to look the part again.

Sir Alex Ferguson was certainly happy enough. "We showed great grit and determination to come from behind," he said. "The main difference today was that we finished our chances, which we haven't been doing."

There were few of them to take for almost an hour as United struggled to make the most of a tactical alignment that had Forlan in a new role on the right of midfield, with a subdued David Beckham inside him. Scholes, used up front, must have thought he had scored in the 17th minute, knocking Giggs's lovely touch towards an empty net, only to see Richard Rufus slide in and hack it away for a corner.

Apart from that, Charlton were comfortable, and had some promising moments even before Jensen's goal. Shaun Bartlett, who won a notable quantity of headers on his return to the side, was sent clear to force a save from Fabien Barthez, then shot high over the bar when set up by John Robinson. But, with three minutes of the half remaining, came a moment to thrill most members of The Valley's biggest crowd since 1977.

Paul Konchesky sent the hard-working Robinson down the left, where he kept possession well until support arrived in the shape of Jensen, who ran at the retreating Rio Ferdinand and sent a fearsome shot into the top corner of the net. Charlton's next task was to avoid sitting too far back and handing their opponents the initiative. They could not quite manage it.

Within nine minutes of the resumption, Luke Young, never the tightest defender, allowed Giggs to escape down the left and Scholes adjusted his body perfectly to turn in the resulting cross. Now Van Nistelrooy appeared, in place of the ineffective Forlan, and for the first time the visitors took control. Giggs might twice have put them ahead, glancing a cross by John O'Shea past the far post and then requiring Dean Kiely to save smartly after taking a pass from Scholes.

The second goal had innocuous beginnings, with a throw-in on United's right, which suddenly became a threat as two Charlton defenders went for the same ball and Van Nistelrooy sprinted clear. Giggs was unmarked as the covering defender came across and was able to dummy Kiely before tapping in. If that was a little hard on the home team, even though they had not been able to create any chances in the second half, a third goal in stoppage time, headed in by Van Nistelrooy from Giggs's centre, was crueller.

Charlton Athletic 1
Jensen 43

Manchester United 3
Scholes 54, Giggs 83, Van Nistelrooy 90

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 26,630