That was certainly the case at The Hawthorns on Saturday, when West Ham United truly dominated their Premier League fixture, but fell to a 4-2 defeat by West Bromwich Albion.
The Hammers controlled both possession – that figure did not drop below 70 per cent for virtually the whole match – and territory, but defensive mistakes cost them dear for a second weekend in succession.
The figure was 70.8 per cent come the final whistle, with West Ham attempting a staggering 613 to West Brom’s 254. Percentage-wise, the Hammers completed 90 per cent of their passes, while West Brom completed just 72.
Territory-wise, the ball was in the West Brom defensive third for a staggering 30 per cent of the game, as opposed to just 16.8 per cent in the West Ham defensive third.
The Hammers also crossed 28 balls into the Baggies’ box, with nine finding a teammate, compared to just eleven by Tony Pulis’s hosts, of which just two were successful. Just for good measure, West Ham also had six corners to West Brom’s two.
So, why did West Ham lose so heavily for the second weekend in a row?
Well, Slaven Bilic pointed to defensive errors and it is clear that both the first and fourth West Brom goals came directly from mistakes made by the visitors.
The first was a penalty awarded for a handball against Arthur Masuaku, converted by Nacer Chadli, while the fourth was also scored by the Belgian after Masuaku had collected a short corner and seen his cross cut out.
The counter-attack saw West Brom’s Salomon Rondon break clear from inside his own half, as nobody in a Claret and Blue shirt had stationed themselves on the halfway line. A look back at West Ham’s first half corners showed Masuaku and Mark Noble were the two men who normally stayed back, but the full-back had remained forward and the captain had been substituted at half-time.
In between, the second goal was something of a freak, as Matty Phillips deflected Angelo Ogbonna’s clearance straight to Rondon, who finished expertly and accurately.
The third also owed something to fortune as James McClean diverted a wayward Chadli shot into the net after a West Brom corner.
Statistically, West Ham have absolutely no trouble scoring goals – they have netted in a Premier League-best 18 straight matches – and, in Michail Antonio and Dimitri Payet, have two of the most potent attackers in the Premier League.
Antonio has a Premier League-leading five goals, while Payet is joint-top of the assist table with three, despite playing for just 203 minutes this season.
Defensively, Bilic and his players say things need to tighten up, as his team have conceded 13 goals in five league games and kept just two clean sheets in nine matches in all competitions.