Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor (left) celebrates his goal with William Gallas at the Emirates Stadium in London on Monday. (AFP)

In the dark of a north London night, Arsenal created some daylight. Five points now separates the Premier League pace-setters from second-placed Manchester United, a substantial margin for a team boasting the self-belief of Arsenal and a goalscorer in such a prolific vein of form as Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Togo international would have had a hattrick on Monday but for the outstanding goalkeeping of Blackburn’s Brad Friedel. Adebayor had to settle for one, his ninth on the spin, expertly put away in injury time to add to Philippe Senderos’ early header.

Adebayor offers such an all-round threat, capable of conjuring up a goal out of nothing or making chances for teammates. He is a target man who can engineer openings for others, and his 19th goal of the season shimmered with significance.

Those Arsenal supporters who love a bit of symmetry will take great heart from Adebayor’s strike and events last night. It was four years and a day since Arsenal last opened up a five-point lead over United, following a 2-0 home win over Southampton, when Thierry Henry netted his 19th of the season late on, just like Adebayor against Blackburn Rovers. In 2004, Arsenal held their nerve, protected their lead and progressed to the title. A completely different attacking talent to Henry, Adebayor is still Arsenal’s leading light in every sense, a beacon for colleagues to look to. “Adebayor’s an outstanding footballer,” said the Blackburn manager, Mark Hughes.

“My back-four dealt with him as well as I’ve seen anyone deal with him. Goals bring confidence and he’s scoring them left, right and centre. We’ve come up against him, equipped ourselves well, but he’s ended up on the score-sheet again.”

Wenger varied his praise. “He can score goals, but I believe as well that all our other strikers benefit from the outstanding teamwork,” the Arsenal manager said.

“It’s not a coincidence that strikers who play here score goals because everybody goes forward, everybody gives you good goals. The team feeds you when we go forward. You get good food here!”

The man himself just admitted to his “happiness” over the events of a long weekend, with United and Chelsea dropping points. “It was amazing with United losing and Chelsea drawing, so we knew what we had to do,” Adebayor said.

They made hard work of despatching a good Rovers side, who responded hungrily to the concession of Senderos’ goal. It was a stupid goal to give away. Scarcely four minutes had elapsed when Eduardo swung over a corner from the right and his teammates made their moves. Senderos made the most telling run. The Swiss came charging through the middle, like a skier hurtling down the Matterhorn, ignoring everyone else. Benni McCarthy should have stayed tighter, but the South African allowed Senderos to leap unchallenged and head powerfully past Friedel.

Any team managed by Hughes lacks neither commitment nor an attacking edge. Any frontline containing McCarthy and particularly Roque Santa Cruz will ensure opposing defenders keep on their toes. Any side boasting David Bentley has a good conduit for its forward surges.

Impressive against Senderos and company at Wembley last week, Bentley again caught the eye here with his neat use of possession. Beneath the watchful gaze of two of Fabio Capello’s lieutenants, Franco Baldini and Stuart Pearce, Bentley began whipping some dangerous crosses and corners into Jens Lehmann’s area.

From one Bentley free kick, Stephen Reid headed narrowly wide. From another clever Bentley delivery, Brett Emerton lifted over a cross that McCarthy somehow nodded wide. Bentley then drifted inside, and rolled an elegant pass to Stephen Warnock on the left. The fullback had realised early on that the midfielder ahead of him, Bruno Berner, offered little to Rovers’ attacking cause, so Warnock took sole responsibility for the flank.

Collecting Bentley’s pass, Warnock hoisted over a magnificent cross that dropped between Senderos and William Gallas. The sliding Cruz just failed to turn the ball past Lehmann.

Blackburn continued to shine after the break, and a low Bentley free kick sent Lehmann scrambling to his left to save. Arsenal needed to wake up. Cesc Fabregas, so often the weaver of Arsenal dreams, promptly slipped a superb pass down the inside-right channel, Eduardo crossed and Alexander Hleb thundered a shot against the post.