Afterwards, Deeney explained: "Other than the knee slide, where I nearly broke my knee, but people have an opinion on me and my family and that's the only way I can shut them up.

"I get in trouble sometimes but this one I'm all right."

Gerard Deulofeu added the second three minutes from full time to lift the Hornets to seventh in the Premier League.

"It was a tough game," Deeney told Watford's official website. "We were more clinical, more ruthless and it resulted in a great away performance.

"Games like this are nice to win but it's nothing too serious. We've got Chelsea in a couple of days.

"Everyone's going to enjoy Christmas with their families and then we'll go again."

Defeat brought an abrupt end to West Ham's four-match winning run, although they can count themselves unlucky to not get at least a point.

Michail Antonio hit the woodwork twice, Javier Hernandez missed a gilt-edged chance and Robert Snodgrass was denied by a stunning save from Ben Foster.

"It's just bitterly disappointing because we have created chances, we've hit the bar, we've hit the post and their keeper has pulled off unbelievable saves, so it's one of those games," said Snodgrass.

"We need to take our chances at this level if we want to have any chance of being in that top-six position, which was achievable when you look at the results we've had over the last few weeks and if we'd made it five in five.

"It's back to the drawing board and we've got to come back from what is obviously a bad result."

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