You might want to check but 'long ball' in that table is a pass of over 25 yards. It does not take the direction into account.
In the blog, I picked the long balls in the Spurs game because Spurs play a high line and pressing game. Liverpool try win the ball back pretty quickly and given we are at home, West Ham might try to bypass this 'pressing' and not play alot in midfield. As shown in the Spurs graphic, their long balls were in fact that - long balls, back to front quickly.
West Ham dont play a short game - its about playing as much of the game in the oppositions final 3rd as possible and therefore, they look to get the ball there quickly and then start to play. Once 'there', they then get bodies in the box and put in there.