While a 2-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers was welcome, a first clean sheet of West Ham United's season was arguably even more satisfying for manager Sam Allardyce.
Nedum Onuoha's own-goal sent the Hammers on their way after just five minutes as the hosts made another fast start, but West Ham could not turn their dominance into a second goal before half-time.
QPR enjoyed their best spell immediately after the break, but West Ham held firm and doubled their lead when Diafra Sakho netted his fifth goal in five starts from James Tomkins' assist.
"We were successful, both out of possession and in possession," Big Sam began. "I was looking at the injury list on Saturday and our fear was that we had seven players out injured, so I had to change the team around a little bit, but I wanted to keep that same system.
"I wanted to keep that diamond because I think it suits the players, as we saw again with our performance. I was worried because if it didn't work, we didn't have many players to bring in, so we might have to change it. We didn't until the end when they threw caution to the wind.
"We didn't want to let them sneak back in it with a goal out of the blue, but finally we got the second goal and that was exactly what we deserved. Across the board, it was a very good performance from the players with very few mistakes made by the defenders - unlike Manchester United.
"Of course goalscoring is very important and the first one, even though it was a little bit of luck, got us on our way. The second one killed the opposition when they were having a good spell, which was about ten minutes long and that was the end of it."
The manager was forced to shuffle his pack slightly due to the absences of Cheikhou Kouyate and Mark Noble through injury, with Alex Song dropping deeper, Mauro Zarate coming in at the tip, Stewart Downing moving wide left and Morgan Amalfitano to the right.
Despite all the slight changes of position, West Ham produced some fine passing football, at times, in what was a largely comfortable victory capped by yet another goal for summer signing Sakho - a revelation since his arrival from Ligue 2 champions FC Metz.
"It is a great little system, the diamond, because it allows the players to rotate into any of the four positions," said the manager. "If one goes out of position, another moves around and fills in and you get opposition players then not marking the same player.
"The front two were the focus of our attack and they have been for us since they have started playing for us. They make life extremely difficult for defenders. They never give them a minute and that's what I like about them most, aside from their quality.
"Sakho did score 20 goals in the French Second Division so it is a gamble that is paying off at the moment! I'm glad to say he feels like he is going to score every time he goes out on the pitch at the minute. What we want is Enner to chip in with a couple as well, which would make things even better.
"Two-nil with a very comfortable performance was very pleasing going into this international break and even more pleasing because it gives us two weeks to get back some of the injuries we have at the moment."
For Big Sam personally, the confidence and belief flowing through the Club at present is a welcome change to the anxiety that surrounded the place just a few months ago.
"Yes, the tension comes when you don't achieve what is expected of you. We all know expectation is very high in the Barclays Premier League and we live in a world that's in a bubble and you have to perform under the pressure when you're in that bubble.
"When you deliver, life becomes so much easier and as a manager you've got to keep an eye on the fact that the confidence doesn't turn into complacency.
"For me, this win was more important than beating Liverpool because these are our bread and butter performances and if we want to get into the top ten level, we have got to win at home against a QPR who have struggled since the start of the season."