LONDON, April 13: Liverpool tightened their grip on fourth place in the Premier League with superbly taken goals from Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres helping them to a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at Anfield on Sunday.

The win kept Liverpool (66 points) in fourth place, five points clear of fifth-placed Everton in the race for a Champions League spot. Leaders Manchester United and third-placed Arsenal were meeting at Old Trafford in a later kickoff.

The victory took the focus off the boardroom troubles at the club which escalated in the week with co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett continuing to battle for control at Anfield and Hicks calling for chief executive Rick Parry to resign.

The squabbling noises from the boardroom were also in stark contrast to an impeccably observed minute’s silence held before kickoff ahead of Tuesday’s 19th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster which cost the lives of 96 Liverpool fans.

Gerrard opened the scoring after 60 minutes had a hand in the second goal and was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty in the opening half.

He then supplied a perfect cross for Torres to head home his 30th goal of the season to all but wrap up the match eight minutes from time.

Late substitute Andriy Voronin added the third with a tap-in in the 90th minute and Roque Santa Cruz scored an outstanding consolation in stoppage time for Rovers with a volley past Pepe Reina high into the net.

Results:

Liverpool 3 Blackburn 1

Manchester United 2 Arsenal 1

Ipswich 2 Norwich 1

Shrewsbury 3 Wrexham 0

—Agencies