West Ham United have earned a comfortable 3-0 win over Crystal Palace to ease the pressure on Slaven Bilic's shoulders and instead turn up the heat on Crystal Palace.
The Hammers, who had lost three in a row in all competitions heading into this match, ended their poor run of form and made up for a lack of goals in recent weeks by scoring three times in the space of 18 second-half minutes.
Defeat for Sam Allardyce against his former side means that the Eagles have now gone five without a win under his watch, leaving them level on points with Hull City in the final relegation berth.
It took a while for the game to truly get going, with Jason Puncheon blasting wide and Andy Carroll himself seeing a volleyed attempt clear the crossbar.
Yohan Cabaye had a chance to open the scoring 31 minutes in when latching on to a stray James Collins header, but he could not get the better of the returning Darren Randolph.
There was also a big opportunity for James Tomkins to prod Palace in front at the home of his former side, but he failed to do so from all of three yards out.
Just the one shot on target in the first half, but instantly things improved in the second - for United, at least - as Carroll turned and shot wide from 25 yards out.
Carroll was growing more and more into the game and clipped the bar after losing his marker soon after, though the hosts did take a deserved lead thanks to Sofiane Feghouli's finish after being picked out by Michail Antonio.
Palace failed to truly get going and didn't register a single shot on goal in the second period, with their afternoon made all the worse by an unstoppable scissor-kick from Carroll to double the scoreline.
Manuel Lanzini rounded off the scoring late on as he kept his cool and got the better of Wayne Hennessey once played through by Antonio, ensuring that West Ham picked up a first clean sheet of the year and a first win.
Daniel Lewis
