Javi Gracia felt Watford secured a deserved victory after beating West Ham United 2-0 to move up to sixth in the Premier League.

A Troy Deeney penalty got the Hornets up and running in the first half but they needed a late second from Gerard Deulofeu to confirm a second straight victory as they ended their opponents’ four-match winning streak.

Roberto Pereyra, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Deeney all had good opportunities to score before Watford doubled their lead, but a resolute defensive display also saw a couple of breaks go their way as West Ham hit the woodwork twice after the break, including after a wonderful Ben Foster save.

The Watford head coach said: “I think we had a good performance today. We knew playing against West Ham in this good moment for them, it would be demanding and it was like we thought.

“In the beginning we played better, we dominated the game and we didn’t suffer a lot. After [Watford] winning 1-0, it was the moment when West Ham started to play much better and create chances, but I was never scared about the result because I was confident in my players.

“I knew we had created good chances and we had to kill the game in that moment as well because with (Andy) Carroll, with long balls, with second balls, we have to defend the set pieces well. It’s always difficult to defend against very tall players, but we did really well and at the end of the game we got the deserved victory.”

A couple of breaks may have gone the Hornets’ way, but they produced a strong defensive display and were rewarded with a first clean sheet in eight games.

“It’s important for us,” Gracia said of the defensive performance “We can score in all the games. We are scoring goals, creating chances – even today, with Troy, with Doucoure, two very good saves from (Lukasz) Fabianski. But we need to be more demanding defensively and this week we have spoken about that.

“We’ve worked defensively and I think today, all the time, we have been organised ready for the counter-attack with (Felipe) Anderson’s position, the two strikers’ positions, knowing it was important to be concentrated in every play.”