It was the normal case o plenty of possession, plenty of shots but far too few on target and another case of points dropped when really they should have been won.
This was a case of two different types of teams, one a team that can pass and pass a ball, another who prefer a more direct style, a lesson should perhaps be learnt here, that possession is a good foundation, but unless you keep it tight at one end and create chances at the other it means absolutely nothing.
Saints had 79% possession, they had 25 shots on goal, but they had exactly the same number on target as West Ham who despite so little of the ball still got 10 shots on goal and 5 on target, but the stat that mattered was in their favour 3-1.
It all started so well, after 20 minutes we were 1-0 up and in total control of the game, then came a through ball for Jarvis that completely split the defence and they were level, yes Jarvis was offside, but it was a matter of inches rather than feet and in open play the linesman can't be blamed it was that close.
But it got worse, 3 minutes later Carlton Cole got in an unmarked header that came back off a post, Yoshida was found wanting, he had plenty of time to clear, but didn't and Cole nipped in and smashed the ball home to give the Hammer a lead that three minutes earlier they couldn't have dreamed of.
For a while they were in the ascension and pushing for a third to kill the game off, but Saints weathered a storm that produced little in actual chances for the home side and finished the half stronger, Lambert himself hitting a post.
Early in the second half came a moment of controversy, the ball was handled by a West Ham defender twice in quick succession, Clattenberg waved both appeals away, in fairness to him they were the sort of appeals easy to spot with the benefit of slow motion replay, not so easy when its in real time and only the naked eye to see them.
Saints continued to dominate but it was on very few occasions they troubled the keeper and then with twenty minutes to go they went to sleep again at the back when Nolan was left unmarked to finish with aplomb.
Saints kept going right to the end but the truth is the Hammers were content to let us pass it around and we rarely worked the keeper.
This was like most other games, a story of possession but having that possession is pointless unless you do something with it, it was a tale of two styles, the more direct of West Ham and our more patient build up type of game, what we cant afford to do is to have these lapses at the back, we had them at Fulham in the first half and got away with them, we didn't at West Ham and paid the price.
Likewise going forward we have to sometimes go for goal, too often we are trying to walk it in rather than be a little more direct, the shots tally tells one story but mostly its not the true one and despite 25 efforts on goal only 5 were on target and no one who watched the game will be voting for the West Ham keeper as man of the match that is for sure.
We can tighten up at the back, the return of Lovren hopefully next week will do that, but going forward we really are too predictable, Rickie Lambert hit the post, but did little else, our style calls for mobility from our front three players, that is not Rickie's game, im not saying he doesn't have a part to play now or next season, but we do have to have a different option up front, yes Gallagher came on for Rickie, but it didn't change anything, we need a different style of forward in our armoury, we need to be able to change tactics when the opposition are comfortable in handling our attacking play.
One thing that struck me with the Hammer's first goal was the question of when was the last time we got a player through on goal in that situation when a through ball puts a man through one on one with the keeper, yes Rodriguez almost got in that situation in the opening minutes, but that was a crossfield pass, im talking here about genuine through balls.
We are still a work in progress, still a couple of players short of having the variety needed to truly be a top 7 side, too often we are reliant on getting away with a few things at the back as we did at Fulham and Hull, when we get away with them fine, when we don't as at Upton Park then we get beaten and are left rueing individual moments in the game.
League wise this doesnt change much, perhaps West Ham being only 8 points behind us now harbour hopes of catching us, but truth is we only need to win three more games and that would probably ensure 9th place, if we want more than that we need to start being tighter at the back and varying things a little more.