West Ham United concluded a strong calendar year in style with an outstanding 4-1 win over Watford at Vicarage Road.
David Moyes' Irons dominated the Premier League new boys in their final fixture of 2021, but fell behind to a moment of quality inside the opening five minutes from Emmanuel Dennis, who skipped inside Craig Dawson before finding the top corner.
But as we have done so often this season, the Hammers mounted a spirited response and took complete command of the game, Tomáš Souček firing home a powerful first-time finish from inside the box before Said Benrahma tucked away Michail Antonio's square ball - the two goals falling just one minute and 49 seconds apart.
A pair of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) calls at the beginning of the second half saw Jarrod Bowen disallowed the Irons' third, but also the same player awarded a penalty which Mark Noble calmly converted to move level with Paolo di Canio as the Irons' joint-second highest Premier League goalscorer on 47 strikes.
And an almost-perfect day in Hertfordshire culminated in injury time when Bowen beat his man and crossed low for second-half substitute Nikola Vlašić to apply the simplest of finishes for his first West Ham goal.
It was no more than the Hammers deserved for a showing of real fight and quality, a resounding performance resulting in a first win in four Premier League games.