England striker Michael Owen grabbed a first-half double as Liverpool crushed Blackburn Rovers 4-0 at Anfield to reclaim fourth place in the English premier league.

The result meant Liverpool leapfrogged Newcastle United in the battle for the fourth and final qualifying spot for next season's Champions League.

With seven games left Liverpool have 49 points, one more than Newcastle who beat Everton 4-2 on Saturday.

In Sunday's other game Aston Villa's hopes of qualifying for Europe suffered a blow when they were held 1-1 at home by struggling Manchester City.

Liverpool made an electric start and Owen, who missed England's 1-0 friendly defeat by Sweden on Wednesday with a hamstring injury, gave them the lead after only seven minutes when he drilled home a shot from the edge of the area.

Rovers defender Andy Todd then volleyed a cross by Senegal striker El Hadji Diouf into his own net to make it 2-0 after 22 minutes.

Two minutes later Owen fired into the top corner from another Diouf pass to wrap up the points with barely a quarter of the match played.

Rovers improved slightly in the second half but Emile Heskey swept in Liverpool's fourth 11 minutes from time and defeat left Graeme Souness's team fifth from bottom on 31 points, only three points clear of the relegation zone.

Captain Steven Gerrard was most pleased by the fact that it was Liverpool's fourth consecutive clean sheet in the league.

He told Sky Sports News: "It was emphatic, we played very well.

"But I thought the most important thing was our defending. That's what we try to base our play upon. We know if we get clean sheets we've got the people up front to score the goals.

"If we keep playing like that today I'm sure we can grab this fourth spot."

At Villa Park French defender Sylvain Distin headed in a corner for Manchester City with eight minutes left to cancel out Colombian Juan Pablo Angel's 26th-minute opener for Villa.

The result left Villa seventh on 44 points, five points adrift of Liverpool. City's point lifted them four points above the drop zone in 15th place.