Surely its a stronger league if teams below the top 4 are getting more results against the big boys?
More likely the top teams have fallen in quality resulting in the lower teams taking more points off them. The number of points we dropped to the lower clubs in the first half of the season was ridiculous; that is far too much to say it is the improvement of lower clubs that resulted in that.
Tottenham have certainly weakened. There were signs of their deterioration last season, and they certainly got worse in this one. (12 points dropped)
Chelsea deteriorated also because of the loss of Hazard. Pulisic is good, but he needed time to bed in and has only started showing recently that he could possibly replace Hazard. Too late in the season. (6 points dropped)
Arsenal has got worse. Last season they finished above us with 70 points. Now, they have 56 points. (14 point drop)
Manchester United (Exactly the same point total), which was a bad season.
I cannot see where such an improvement in the lower teams could have come from to result in teams dropping such an abnormal amount of points against the lower clubs. It must be the deterioration of the top sides.