David Moyes was full of praise for his West Ham side following the hard fought and impressive performance in the victory over Aston Villa.

Our Irons were dominant and showed class throughout in a vital win that solidifies our hunt for a European spot again this season.

“I’ve been incredibly proud of the players since the start of the season in how they’re going about their work,” said the boss.

“We’re only just getting started in terms of challenging the top teams. Aston Villa have spent a lot of money and have got a really good team, full of talented players.

“We’re having a go with what we’ve got, and I’m hoping we can continue to build and get better.

“We’ve come back from Europe in midweek and sometimes it’s hard to get the performance. For us to get the win today was huge.

“It was a huge win for us because it keeps us in and around the European spots, where we want to be, and we showed great character today.

“I thought we played well. We had a spell in the second half where we lost a couple of players through injury and I thought we could yield quite easily.

“With the changes, it was going to be quite difficult, but we actually grew with it and we got the couple of goals.”

A key and emotional moment in the game saw Andriy Yarmolenko score for West Ham, with a finely taken strike, following the terrible events in his homeland Ukraine.

“Yarmolenko’s goal shows a lot,” added Moyes.

“It shows a lot about the Club. The Club have been really supportive.

“The fans were great. They realised it was so important for Yarmolenko. We realised it as well, the players realised it, because we see how difficult it is for him and his family, with what’s going on in his country for all Ukrainians.

“Football has that little bit of something, sometimes which can change lives. You can win games, you can win cups, and that’ll make you feel better. It happens as a manager all the time. You lose games, you get a win and it cheers you up a bit.

“I hope today Yarmolenko will feel much better for playing.”