Manuel Pellegrini says victories like Saturday's 1-0 Premier League win at Southampton are the ones which help players recover their belief.
Sebastien Haller scored the only goal of the game after 37 minutes to secure the Hammers a vital three points - despite having a second-half Michail Antonio strike disallowed for handball by VAR - victory which kept the Saints below their visitors.
The boss recognised the importance of the success and knows his team need to build on it now over the festive season.
"It was a game that we needed to win and we did it well," he said. "First of all, we won a a game again and got three points more. We kept a clean sheet and with this kind of game the players recover the trust that they can do it.
"Against Arsenal we did it for 60 minutes, but you need to play for 95 minutes to be a consistent team and we did that today.
"We've played three of our last five games away - at Chelsea, Wolverhampton and now Southampton, so I think six points from those [away] games is okay.
"We are missing the points we lost at home against Crystal Palace, against Sheffield United, against Newcastle - that's the difference between a good season and not."
Pellegrini praised Michail Antonio and Sebastien Haller, who combined dangerously together to threaten the Saints throughout as the Chilean switched to a 4-4-2 formation at St Mary's.
The manager continued: "Both of them worked very well attacking. We knew Southampton were a team who concede goals and both of them had different actions, one inside the box, and the other running into space. We had a few more chances too. Antonio is an important player as is so many of the players we are missing. We know he makes an impact. He can improve more and I think we will see him score more. Both of them played a complete game both defending and attacking.
"I think they did very well, both of them, and we scored one goal but had two or three more clear chances to score.
"Michail demonstrates every time he plays that he's an important player. You must add Manuel Lanzini, Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski. They are all important players, but we know Antonio makes an impact because of his power. Unfortunately for him he had the handball [which saw his goal disallowed seven minutes after half-time], but we played a complete game attacking and defending."
