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David Moyes calls on West Ham to keep the pedal to the metal after hammering Aston Villa

 (PA)
(PA)

David Moyes told his West Ham stars to keep the pedal to the metal after the Hammers romped past Aston Villa.

A fifth-straight win kept up the serious momentum built up by the Scot’s side across several competitions in recent weeks.

Ben Johnson, Declan Rice, Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen all got on the scoresheet in the 4-1 rout on Sunday.

Moyes said: "It's been a great week. But you know what happens in football, it can quickly turn around and bite you.

"But I think we've got to the stage where we're really confident in a lot of the things we do. The players are understanding their roles and what's expected of them.

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"We can't let up, though, I've told them that if we think we're doing great and it's all easy it'll fail, so we've got to keep at it.

"I'm really pleased with the result. The run we are on at the moment, it is really pleasing, coming to Villa and scoring four is never easy. This was a really tough game as they have a really good team."

Asked about the raised expectations following last season, when West Ham finished sixth in the Premier League, and the strong start to the current campaign, Moyes said: "I think football managers have to try to raise the bar.

"After 10 games is a pretty good time to judge where you are in the season. The players are doing a remarkable job but none of us must think that we've done it as there's still such a long way to go."

Ollie Watkins had equalised before Rice quickly restored the Hammers' lead before half-time.

Konsa's red card shortly after the break gave Villa an uphill task after Kortney Hause had caught Pablo Fornals in the face on the run. Konsa was initially booked for knocking Bowen to the ground right on the edge of the box.

 (AP)
(AP)

VAR took a look at both incidents and decided that Hause had no case to answer, while Konsa saw his yellow card upgraded to red after referee Chris Kavanagh checked the monitor.

Smith disagreed with the decision, saying: "It's a frustrating day and when things are going against you things happen.

"I don't think it's a red card. The referee has made his decision - yellow card. Is it a clear and obvious error? No, I don't think it is.

"He's not clean through on goal but when I spoke to the referee after the game he said (Bowen's) touch has taken him towards goal. I've seen the replay and it's not going towards goal so it's a poor decision."

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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