West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic, has stated that the Hammers' 4-1 Boxing Day victory over Swansea City was their "best performance this season".

Best performance so far

It has been a poor start to the campaign for Bilic's side, but have been on the up over the last few weeks with two wins on the spin when they headed to the Liberty Stadium for their festive clash.

Former Swan Andre Ayew opened the scoring, with second-half goals from Winston Reid, Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll canceled out Fernando Llorente's consolation and Bilic praised the performance of his side.

“It was a really good performance,” Bilic told whufc.com. “From the first minute until the end we were really compact and were able to defend as a team."

“It was maybe our best performance this season and we totally deserved it," the Croatian stated, going on to admit"OK, it helps when you are winning 1-0 and you score another one, because you play with a lot more confidence than when you are losing."

"But it was a really good performance," Bilic added. "I’m really pleased with the team and I congratulate all the players.”

Keep believing

The biggest win of the season so far has left the Hammers in an excellent position, with the East London side climbing up to 11th with eight points between them and the drop zone.

That could increase with the New Years Eve trip to struggling champions Leicester City, and Bilic admitted that it is a real opportunity to continue to increase their confidence.

“The key was that we never stopped believing and we kept training hard and kept believing," he said. “The two wins against Burnley and Hull were hard."

"But they put us in a position where we could breathe a bit more," the coach stated. "That was basically the key."

"Of course we are going to be positive but the Premier League gives you no time to relax," Bilic concluded. "However, this is a real opportunity for us to build our confidence even more.”

West Ham United will take on Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, December 31 with kick-off at 3pm GMT.