Marco Silva claimed he was embracing the pressure after his Everton side earned him some relief with a well-deserved 2-0 win over West Ham.

Goals from Bernard and substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson ended the Toffees' run of four successive Premier League defeats in impressive style at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Everton had begun the game in the relegation zone, and with manager Silva under heavy scrutiny, but their performance was not one of a struggling side.

Silva said: "Pressure is normal in football. When you are in a very good moment, the pressure is there to win more games. When you are not – and the last results were not good enough – we have to react. The pressure is always there.

"The pressure, every single day, has to be a pleasure. It has to be a privilege for us. We are doing what we love. It is a football match, it is not the end of the world.

"OK, results are the main thing in football, but express yourselves on the pitch – that is what I asked them and it was really good to see."

Silva also thanked the Everton fans for their backing.

"The crowd was really good," he said. "I asked them to support our players from the first minute because in these type of moments we have to see how Everton is strong as a football club."

Everton cut a poor West Ham side open at will and also hit the woodwork twice among 19 attempts on goal.

With a sharper cutting edge they could easily have won more convincingly, although West Ham did defend doggedly at times and goalkeeper Roberto did well.

Silva said: "We deserved the three points but we should have scored more goals.

"What is important to talk about is the way we played, the performance. It was a very good performance, quality football from the first minute.

"We embraced the game and the challenge and we played football. The movement in our offensive organisation was very good."

Yet as good as the hosts were, the Hammers were poor.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini felt his side were on the end of an Everton backlash and admitted they were outplayed.

The Chilean said: "Without any doubt, I'm not happy. We knew before the game that, always, Everton is a tough game in their stadium. The position they arrived in here made it doubly difficult."

Everton's victory was not secured until Sigurdsson added their second in injury time but things already looked ominous at half-time following Bernard's 17th-minute effort.

Pellegrini said: "In that moment, if I could make 11 changes, maybe I would. In the first half we didn't shoot once at goal.

"Everton were dominating the game. They had six or seven chances, they hit the post.

"In the second half we improved a bit but we need to be very clear in what we must improve if we want to return to being the team we were a couple of weeks ago."