Yeah, the squad is overrated to some extent I think. The squad is very thin compared to our direct rivals, and with our injuries it's been hard to compete on all fronts. And despite having some great players such as Kane, the competition also got great players. I also doubt you'll find many people raving about our fullbacks, and despite doing well when he wasn't injured, Winks isn't alongside the best midfielders out there, so we got an unbalanced squad with everyone fit, and with injuries even more so.
As you say, expectations are different, United have spent more than Liverpool and slightly less than City over the last years yet finished 6th. Our spending is I think 19th in the league with the 6th highest wage budget since Pochettino took over.
As for Eriksen he's been 2nd, 2nd, 5th, 3rd on the assist charts in the PL the last 4 years on top of scoring some crucial goals. I think he's absolute quality.