Slaven Bilic: West Ham 'dominated' Aston Villa after Jordan Ayew red

Slaven Bilic was relieved that West Ham were able to overcome a dogged 10-man Aston Villa to "dominate" their 2-0 Premier League win at Upton Park on Tuesday.

Remi Garde's side were a man down early on as Jordan Ayew saw red for elbowing Aaron Cresswell in the face after 17 minutes, though Villa frustrated the Hammers for the rest of the first half.

Bilic's side made the breakthrough 58 minutes in after Michail Antonio headed in Mark Noble's pass, and the hosts ended any hopes of a Villa comeback five minutes from time as Cheikhou Kouyate slotted home on the counter-attack.

The win saw West Ham consolidate sixth spot, climbing to within six points of fourth-placed Arsenal in the race for Champions League qualification positions.

Bilic acknowledged that the Ayew's dismissal put pressure on his players to control the game, telling the club's official Twitter account after the game: "When the team has one more player on the pitch it can become nervous. But we dominated in the second half and we scored a great goal.

"When we scored the second goal it was game over. The one moment of the red card affected the game a lot. I didn't see it to be fair.

"The cross from Noble to Antonio for the first goal was the moment of the game. You need some extra quality and that was brilliant."

Villa manager Garde refused to discuss whether he would punish Ayew for his dismissal, saying: "It will remain private what I say to Jordan Ayew. I will speak to him.

"I’m not sure this is the only incident that turned the game. Like the previous two games, we were denied a penalty.

"With 11 players vs 11, I’m sure we could have earned something from the game but unfortunately we didn’t. This group of players is together more than ever."