With Liverpool, Chelsea and Brentford all dropping points this weekend in the race for the Champions League spots, Villa took advantage by boosting its own chances after ending its three-game losing streak in the top flight.

Villa started brightly, with Mads Hermansen tipping Lucas Digne's long-range sighter wide before Konstantinos Mavropanos cleared a corner off the line.

But it took a clever short free-kick routine to break open the Hammers' defence, with John McGinn curling in from the edge of the box after being teed up by Jadon Sancho in the 15th minute.

Watkins saw a shot saved before firing another wide in the first half, on either side of Mavropanos making another goal-line clearance, this time to deny Morgan Rogers.

West Ham upped the pressure without testing Emiliano Martinez, and were punished for it in the 68th minute, with Watkins emphatically rifling into the roof of the net from close range after pouncing on Rogers's saved effort.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side could not find a way back into the game as it failed to get the win that would have moved it out of the relegation zone after Tottenham's loss to Nottingham Forest.