Even by the surreal standards of our national obsession it has been a strange few days on planet Premier League, although in some respects Arsenal’s serene progress to the summit represents the most far-fetched plot line of them all.

There are some Arsenal fans who would have expected to see their heroes competing for an intergalactic championship on the Moon before Philippe Senderos made a useful contribution in a big match. The Switzerland defender, however, all but secured the win to take his side five points clear of Manchester United before a more reliable performer, Emmanuel Adebayor, added a second in injury time.

Adebayor has scored 12 times in finding the back of the net in nine successive matches to move level with Cristiano Ronaldo on 19 league goals in an engrossing race for the Golden Boot, although it is the contest for the title that is most compelling for Arsène Wenger. The Arsenal manager can take heart from a curious symmetry in that his team last went five points clear almost four years ago to the day en route to winning the title in 2004, while 63 points from 26 matches is championship form anywhere.

Even in his wildest dreams, Wenger will not have contemplated approaching Valentine’s Day with such a lead, although of greater significance is that Arsenal have strengthened their position in a congested period with a threadbare squad, with Cesc Fàbregas hauled off his sickbed to play last night. Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Eboué made it back from the African Cup of Nations yesterday, while Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie are close to returning from injury.

With matches against Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Wigan Athletic and Middlesbrough coming next, their lead could be even bigger by the time they visit Stamford Bridge on March 23, a game that Chelsea surely must win to stay in contention.

Arsenal are improving while their rivals falter, with the only criticism of this performance the familiar one that they should have won by more. Wenger’s enforced decision to shift Fàbregas to the right of midfield did not limit his contribution as the Spaniard and Alexander Hleb drifted inside with impunity, but the outstanding performance came from Eduardo da Silva, who dropped deep to link up play and created enough chances for his team-mates to have run up a cricket score and still have declared well before the end.

Only for a brief period towards the end of the first half were Blackburn Rovers remotely in the contest and without four outstanding saves from Brad Friedel in the second half they could have suffered a repeat of the 6-2 defeat of last season.

For all their flowing football, Arsenal’s opening goal could not have been more straightforward, Senderos escaping the attentions of Benni McCarthy to head home a corner from Eduardo that the Croatia striker had done well to win. Senderos’s immediate reward for such heroism is likely to be a return to the bench with Touré back to partner William Gallas, although he can take consolation from being celebrated at last for the right reasons.

Senderos’s error-strewn performances, which briefly returned when he presented Roque Santa Cruz with Blackburn’s sole opportunity shortly before half-time, have earned him the sobriquet “Philippe Ponderous” among some supporters, but he has retained the backing of the one man who really matters, his manager.

Having scored 12 goals in Blackburn’s past three league visits, Arsenal were never going to settle for one but missed several opportunities to extend their lead over the course of a first half that they dominated. Two of them fell to Mathieu Flamini, who justified Wenger’s faith in him as the side’s principal playmaker in another industrious performance, but he needs to improve his finishing if he is to become a truly world-class midfield player.

Flamini blasted well over the bar after Bacary Sagna had met Eduardo’s corner at the near post, then shot straight at the feet of Friedel after he was played through on goal by Fàbregas’s header.

The second half was even more one-sided, Friedel seemingly keeping Arsenal at bay single-handedly, but Adebayor eventually beat him with the help of a clever ball from Hleb.

The Togo striker’s goals have ensured that Thierry Henry is a distant memory, the Barcelona striker perhaps being the only Arsenal fan to have mixed feelings about their remarkable progress.

Arsenal (4-4-2): J Lehmann – B Sagna, P Senderos, W Gallas, G Clichy – F Fàbregas, M Flamini, Gilberto Silva, A Hleb – Eduardo da Silva, E Adebayor. Substitutes not used: L Fabianski, N Bendtner, A Traoré, J Hoyte, K Gilbert. Booked: Fàbregas.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): B Friedel – B Emerton, Z Khizanishvili, A Ooijer (sub: M Rigters, 80min), S Warnock – D Bentley, S Reid, Tugay Kerimoglu (sub: A Mokoena, 77), B Berner – B McCarthy (sub: J Roberts, 77), R Santa Cruz. Substitutes not used: T Kane, J Brown.

Referee: S Bennett.