It was deja vu at West Ham on Sunday afternoon both in terms of what seems to be the obligatory 3 goals conceded, but also the season where once again we lost because of poor defending in a game where we could have got something out of it if we had been tight at the back.
I have mentioned 2 deja vu's up at the London Stadium , now I am going to mention a third, I have written this review on numerous occasions this season, I could almost have a template and cut and paste it each week and just change the names a little, since Xmas it could have been used for the defeats at Leicester City, Everton, West Brom and a host of other defeats where we have thrown the game away due to poor defending and poor goalkeeping.
Before I get going I am going to get the Nathan Redmond issue out of the way, whilst no one not even his mother could claim he had a good game and he was poor, the truth is that he was not to blame for this defeat, it wasn't him who pushed a tame shot straight into the danger area instead of getting it out of harms was, it wasn't he that was caught napping yet again and was 3 yards off his man for the second goal, football is a team game, Redmond was poor but he wasn't alone in that.
But he is the scapegoat for some and they have to rant as if Redmond had scored a hat trick for West Ham of own goals, I think his time is up at this club, if only for the fact that he needs a new start somewhere else, he needs to go somewhere where the fans are not on his back and I for one will thank him for the many good things he has done for this club in five seasons service.
Enough of that lets look at the game and why we lost it, to be honest looking back at it there was little to choose between the two sides aside from West Ham could defend and we couldn't, for the first half an hour we were the dominant side, we could easily have been 2-0 up in that time, Minamino played through and putting a glorious chance just inches wide and Kyle Walker Peters also seeing a good chance well saved by the keeper.
But just as we thought this might be a good day at the office we did what we always do, make mistakes at the back.
Ralph Hasenhuttl went for Alex McCarthy in goal and this was a big mistake, in the past month or so Forster has been the in form keeper and McCarthy out of sorts, I would go as far as saying that he had been found wanting in the 3 goals conceded before this game and sadly he would be found wanting again.
The warning signs were there long before the goal when he came for a cross and completely missed it, luckily we cleared the ball, West Ham's opener was a tame shot, but he parried the ball back into the danger area, when he really should have got it away from the goal, even if he had to concede a corner.
But if that goal came out of nowhere the second 3 minutes later truly found us lacking in concentration, a cross came in and Jannik Vestergaard was completely lost, he wasn't aware of where he should have been and where his man was and it was a simple goal again for Fornals.
Again McCarthy didn't make an attempt to save it, that meant that out of the last 5 goals he had conceded, he had stood and watched 4 of them go past him, only in the second West Ham goal did he make a despairing effort.
So we had gone in the space of 30 minutes from looking good to handing the game to the Hammers.
In the second half we had our chances and Fabianski had to save well again, that was the difference between the two sides, their goalkeeper did his job and so did their defence at vital moments and ours didn't.
Was this a 3-0 game ? no based on the last hour we deserved to lose, based on the first 30 minutes we deserved to win, overall we had 17 attempts on goal with 5 on target, they had 14 but got half of those on target and we let 3 of them in.
That is a recurring theme this season and it needs to be dealt with.
But there were plus points, Mohamed Salisu will become a great defender at St Mary's, he can read a game and he has fast feet and can get himself out of trouble, Ibrahima Diallo showed he will have a part to play next season and played a great through ball for Kyle Walker Peters to put him through on goal.
The return of Oriol Romeu was also good to see.
Saints can look forward to next season as long as they sort out the issues, we have lost games due to the fact that we lose concentration at the back all the time, at this level an International player like Vestrgaard should not be stood on his own in the penalty area, he should be aware of where he needs to be and who needs to be marked, he was stood like a rabbit in the headlights.
As I said this verdict sadly could be written for any number of games since the New Year, Ralph Hasenhuttl must be tearing his hair out when time and time again the same players make the same mistakes, in the case of the back line he perhaps had no one else to play up in East London on Sunday, but in goal McCarthy has been clearly out of form and Forster clearly in it, I don't get that selection.
Was Nathan Redmond the worst player on the pitch for Saints, I would say it was actually Danny Ings, he wasn't playing badly for a lack of trying, but when he got the ball he was too often let down by poor control and couldn't seem to beat his man when he got the ball, no one can berate him for a bad game every now he has been a big part of this success, but lets put this game into perspective.
Also needing to be put into perspective is where we stand in the League table, take a look at the 15 clubs above us, Crystal Palace excepted they all have stadiums that are bigger than ours, average crowds that are bigger than ours in normal times, they all have greater resources and i'm not talking about an owner who pumps money in here.
When the final whistles went around the country, normality had returned to League positions, gone where the early days of the season where Saints could top the League, when the top 8 positions were sorted, they all went to the Big Six plus Leicester and this season's surprise club West Ham United.
We have underperformed this season, but only by one place, this is the reality of the Premier League, when we kicked out the European Super league project all we did was maintain the status quo , the rich getting richer and the bulk of us getting poorer in comparison.
Anyway thank God this season is over and we can get on and plan the next one, there are many things to look forward to, we can see our problems and in that case we should be able to deal with them, if we do then there is no reason why we should not once again become the club that surprises a few people as we did in 2014/15 & 2015/16 , but and it is a big BUT, I leave you with this thought, back then we did so not by spending big money, but by finding the likes of Sadio Mane, Virgil Van Dijk etc, players who had hunger and potential and that is where our success in the future lies, not by trying to outspend the likes of Everton & Villa who have once again spent big but ultimately not got anywhere near challenging the Big Six, but by succeeding on our own terms.