West Ham are celebrating putting some daylight between themselves and basement club Portsmouth after this Boxing Day victory courtesy of goals from Alessandro Diamanti and Radoslav Kovac.

It was their first win since November and leaves them four points ahead of Avram Grant’s strugglers.

This lunchtime kick-off brought together two of the Premier League’s most financially fraught clubs and the first half suffered from a poverty of chances and entertainment.

Hermann Hreidarsson went close early on for Portsmouth, who failed to take advantage of their brighter start and soon found themselves pinned back by West Ham pressure, of a sort.

The home side’s dominance stemmed from the industry of Scott Parker and the left foot of Diamanti – without these players, the first half would have been even grimmer fare.

It was Parker who found himself alone in the Portsmouth box when the right-back Julien Faubert pumped a long ball forward. The midfielder fed Guillermo Franco and, after the striker had an effort blocked, the substitute Luis Jimenez reacted quickest and was felled in the area by a combination of Michael Brown and former Hammer Hayden Mullins.

Diamanti’s left foot did the job from 12 yards out, his powerful shot going beyond the diving Asmir Begovic.

Thirty-five minutes had elapsed before Jamie O’Hara had the visitors’ first shot on target, but Robert Green was always behind the Tottenham loanee’s curling 30-yard free-kick.

Tal Ben Haim also had an effort from distance, but Portsmouth looked like the league’s bottom club and Jimenez and Jack Collison caused them some concern before the break.

West Ham went very close to scoring on the resumption. The lively Jimenez, a first-half replacement for the injured Mark Noble, had a shot from the edge of the area deflected off Steve Finnan and Asmir Begovic did brilliantly to tap it around his left-hand post for a corner.

Diamanti saw Begovic off his line and attempted a 40-yard lob, but it was a little wide of the target.

Nwankwo Kanu was introduced for the visitors at half-time, in place of Aruna Dindane, and his clever flick almost set Frédéric Piquionne free, but Green was alive to the danger. Another substitute, Kevin-Prince Boateng, hit the side netting and shot straight at Green as a retreating West Ham invited Portsmouth to attack.

With Kanu on the pitch, Piquionne was not so isolated and the Frenchman showed his quality on 79 minutes, when he controlled a high ball under pressure from James Tomkins and eluded Matthew Upson before shooting too close to Green.

West Ham finally awoke in the closing 10 minutes and Collison and Valon Behrami, back after a month out injured, went close. Behrami linked up exquisitely with Parker and squeezed a shot just wide as the match became more stretched.

West Ham put the game beyond Portsmouth – and increased the gap at the bottom of the table – when Kovac got above Ben Haim to head Jimenez’s free-kick home from five yards out.

Premier LeagueWest Ham UnitedPortsmouthMikey Staffordguardian.co.uk

Sunderland came back to claim an unlikely point through a 76th-minute goal by Kieran Richardson after having to play the entire second half without their forward Kenwyne Jones, who was sent off just before half-time for pushing West Ham’s Herita Ilunga in the face. Radoslav Kovac’s red card four minutes from time for a second bookable offence at least levelled the numbers by full-time.

Guillermo Franco’s first West Ham goal appeared to have put the visitors on course for their first win since the opening day of the season. The Mexican fired home Jack Collison’s pull-back in the 30th minute before the youngster created the second for Carlton Cole six minutes later.

Andy Reid halved the deficit within two minutes with a glorious curling free-kick, but when Jones got his marching orders the home side were up against it.

The visitors’ opening goal had been against the run of play in the 30th minute when Collison ran on to a ball down the right channel and, having been correctly ruled onside, pulled it back for Franco to side-foot home at the near post.

Gianfranco Zola’s men almost made it two four minutes later but Gordon did brilliantly to save Cole’s effort from inside the area. Cole did score in the 36th minute, though, when his diagonal run was picked out by Collison’s reverse ball and, after taking a touch, he slotted his finish past Craig Gordon.

It might have been worse for the hosts had Nyron Nosworthy not been given the benefit of the doubt when he looked like he might have brought down Cole as last man.

Behrami was then booked for a foul on Malbranque on the edge of the area, to the right of centre, and Reid took full advantage from the free-kick. The Irishman curled it left-footed over the wall and into the near top corner to bring his side back into the match in the 38th minute.

Sunderland’s Michael Turner picked up a yellow card for a foul, and things soon got worse for Bruce’s men when Jones was shown a red card in first-half stoppage time after retaliating following a foul for which Ilunga was subsequently booked.

Robert Green then kept the visitors in front with two instinctive saves, first pushing Bent’s low shot behind for a corner and then superbly parrying Turner’s header from the resulting set piece.

The 10 men were fired up and Cana shot over from long range before Bent should have levelled in the 51st minute. The former Tottenham forward turned inside a defender but as Green came out he could only blaze his left-footed effort high and wide.

The Black Cats came desperately close in the 65th minute when Cana’s header after a Reid corner came back off the crossbar and, from the rebound, Paula Da Silva’s header was tipped on to the bar and behind by Green.

The Hammers brought on Diamanti for Behrami in the 67th minute, but it was Sunderland who tipped the match back in their favour eight minutes later as Richardson equalised from close in with a shot into the left corner.

Premier LeagueSunderlandWest Ham Unitedguardian.co.uk