Dominic Calvert-Lewin believes Everton have to “keep believing” after his winner reinforced their European credentials with a hard-earned victory away to Champions League hopefuls West Ham.

But Ben Godfrey’s slide-rule pass allowed Calvert-Lewin to score his 16th league goal of the season in the first half at London Stadium.

And manager Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to play with three centre-backs was justified as his side defended resolutely to secure a second straight away win having also won 1-0 at Arsenal last month.

Everton remain eighth but are now one point behind seventh-placed Tottenham and three behind fifth-placed West Ham – with a game in hand on both.

The striker said: “I think every game is getting more important from now until the end of the season, so we simply have to keep believing and go into every game trying to win.”

Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti added: “It was a vital victory, if we don’t win here we are out of the fight for Europe.

“There was pressure on the game but we managed the game well. We played defensively at the top, really good, and were really dangerous on the counter-attack.”

For the Hammers, this is a big blow to manager David Moyes’ hopes of again leading an unfancied team into the Champions League having done so as Everton boss in 2005.

Newcastle won at fourth-placed Leicester on Friday but this defeat keeps West Ham five points off the top four with just three games left.

A Europa League spot would be some consolation for Moyes and his former club aim to join West Ham after claiming their 11th away win in the league this season – and their fifth in London.

Frustrated Hammers fail to get a shot on target

After 34 games last season, West Ham were fifth from the bottom, three points above the relegation zone. At the same stage this term, they were five points off the top four.

Such has been the turnaround in Moyes’ first full season in charge, with victory at Everton on New Year’s Day sparking a run of 11 wins from 18 league games coming into this game.

That run was buoyed by the arrival of Jesse Lingard on loan, but despite dominating possession, Lingard and his team-mates struggled to play through Everton’s organised defence.

Their best chance of the first half saw Said Benrahma’s wait for his first Premier League goal continue as he headed over from a Pablo Fornals cross.

The Algeria winger has now had 32 attempts without scoring in the Premier League – more than any other player.

After the interval, Fornals had a shot blocked before spreading the play to Vladimir Coufal, whose low shot came back off the inside of the far post and substitute Jarrod Bowen was unable to steer the rebound goalwards.

Lingard was then booked for dissent as the visitors continued to frustrate the Hammers, who failed to register a shot on target.

Calvert-Lewin could have a big part to play at Euros

Ancelotti made three changes to the side beaten at home by Aston Villa last Saturday, bringing Michael Keane and Yerry Mina back into defence.

But Godfrey kept his place, as one of three centre-backs, in a system which allows defenders to step out of the backline when in possession and play the kind of ball that created Everton’s opener.

With West Ham’s defence seemingly set, Godfrey advanced into a pocket of space from halfway before spotting Calvert-Lewin’s run off Craig Dawson and the ex-Norwich defender slid a ball into the right channel for the England striker to latch on to and slot inside the far post.

While the Toffees remained dogged in defence, Calvert-Lewin showed why he is much more than just a goal threat and why he could be so valuable to England manager Gareth Southgate at the Euros.

Calvert-Lewin’s flick allowed Richarlison to test home goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski with a close-range effort in the first half, and he showed great hold-up play before picking out Seamus Coleman’s run into the box late on, but the Everton captain’s shot was blocked.

The 24-year-old created another chance to seal victory as he rounded Fabianski before standing up a cross for substitute Joshua King, whose header came back off the post.

With Romelu Lukaku now the only Everton player to have scored more goals in a Premier League campaign, Calvert-Lewin could be a key man for England this summer.

‘You can get greedy and forget where you’ve come from’ – what they said

West Ham boss David Moyes: “We kept it well, passed it well but just fell short in the final third. But you have to credit Everton for the way they defended. We just made one mistake that turned the game because prior to that there wasn’t much from either side.

“I’d praise Everton more than I would question us on it. We needed a few things to drop for us today and they didn’t. Overall this was a game of very few chances; we had lots of the ball and certainly didn’t deserve to lose.”

Are West Ham’s Champions League hopes over? “I don’t know; you never know how the other results have gone, so we will keep pushing.

“I think because we’ve lost today defeat might be costly. but you never know in football. If we qualify for Europe I think it would be an incredible achievement, no matter which competition it is.”

Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti: “We were strong defensively and effective on the counter-attack. We didn’t have a lot of clear opportunities but we didn’t concede a lot.

“If we lost this game, we were out of the fight but we are in the fight with great motivation. We have another important game on Thursday but the attitude was there after the bad performance against Aston Villa.”

On Dominic Calvert-Lewin: “It could be good for him to reach 20 goals, so he has four games to try to reach this target, which means he had a fantastic season.

“The movement for the goal was fantastic, the pass was perfect. I said to the strikers to focus there; it was the right pass and the right movement.”

Toffees continue to do well on their travels – the stats

• Only Manchester City (13) have won more Premier League away games than Everton (11) this season.
• Everton’s 11 away wins are their most in a top-flight campaign since 1984-85 (12), when they won the title.
• Everton have won 14 of the 15 Premier League away games in which they have opened the scoring under Carlo Ancelotti, only dropping points from such a position against Arsenal in February 2020 (3-2 defeat).
• Calvert-Lewin has scored 16 league goals this season but is yet to make an assist – he is currently the highest-scoring player without an assist since Benni McCarthy in 2006-07 (18 goals).
• West Ham have lost consecutive league games at home for the first time since December 2019, when they lost each of Manuel Pellegrini’s final four home league games in charge.
• West Ham have hit the woodwork more often than any other team in the Premier League this season (21).

What next?

West Ham visit Brighton next Saturday (20:00 BST), while Everton play their game in hand at Aston Villa on Thursday (18:00) before hosting Sheffield United on Sunday (19:00).