Philippe Senderos believes Arsenal's focus on the ugly side of the beautiful game is driving their charge towards the Barclays Premier League title.

The Swiss defender, who is 23 on Thursday, scored an early header from a corner in a 2-0 win over Blackburn last night as the Gunners surged five points ahead of Manchester United at the top of the table.

It was hardly the kind of eye-catching goal for which the north Londoners have become renowned under manager Arsene Wenger.

But Senderos revealed, despite their reputation as the most attractive team to watch in the country, Arsenal have been working hard on set-pieces in a bid to become more ruthless.

"Offensively and defensively we have really concentrated on set-pieces," he said. "We can see we have scored more goals and we are attacking the ball really well, so hopefully we can score a few more this season."

Emmanuel Adebayor's injury-time clincher made sure Arsenal took advantage of United and Chelsea's slip-ups at the weekend.

"We knew the importance of the game coming into this one and it was a tremendous performance by everyone - it was a very difficult game," said Senderos.

"Coming into every game we have a great belief and a great spirit, and coming into this game we definitely knew the importance of the three points.

"Being at the top is where we want to be and we are going to continue."

Senderos also revealed his goal-scoring performance came despite him being hampered by niggling injuries.

"I was still feeling my knee a little bit and my thigh, but you have to play with it sometimes and I was delighted with the performance by the whole team," he added.