West Ham United maintained their surprise chances of qualifying for Europe after Monday's comfortable 3-0 win over relegation doomed Sheffield United.

The Hammers spent last season in a relegation battle, but they are now in contention for a Champions League spot, two points clear of champions Liverpool with 14 games remaining.

Chris Basham's clumsy foul on Jesse Lingard allowed Declan Rice to score the opening goal from the penalty spot with four minutes remaining in the half.

Lukasz Fabianski perserved West Ham's lead shortly after when he denied David McGoldrick a certain goal.

Issa Diop doubled the lead thirteen minutes after half-time when he connected on Aaron Cresswell's corner.

Ryan Federicks sealed all three points for David Moyes' side when he converted a terrific assist from Said Benrahma deep in stoppage time.

The Blades are now 14 points from safety with 14 games remaining and look destined to spend next season in the Championship.

Speaking after the game, Moyes insisted he was not getting carried away with West Ham's table position.

"Well we're safe now, 40 points is safe," said Moyes. "I can't get carried away because if we do, it might happen, we're a team in progress, trying to grow and get good foundations in place.

"We're enjoying it at the moment how could we not be - I want the players to just keep improving.

"There's a lot more to come we can play better than we did tonight. We're doing a decent job at the moment though."