More competiitve yes, but is the Premier League really better on quality?

So, an amazing Premier League season continued with yet more strange results this weekend. Spurs coming back from 2-0 down to win at neighbours Arsenal for the first time in 17 years was possibly the 'highlight' but Chelsea going down 1-0 at Birmingham was not far behind.
With Liverpool already suffering a spell in the bottom three and Manchester United looking a pale shadow of the side that won the Champions League just two years ago it seems that the days of the 'Big Four' might be coming to an end.
But for all the unpredictability of the league this season lets not kid ourselves that the quailty has improved. In fact I would argue the opposite is true. Yes, the gap on the top four has closed, with sides like Spurs, Manchester City and Aston Villa now all ready to challenge, but when the likes of Sunderland, Bolton, West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle have all occupied Champions League places at various times this season you really do have to question the quality at the top.
I accept that Bolton and West Brom have been playing some good football this season but come on, the fact that they are even challenging for Europe just shows how the standard of the top sides has slipped. As for the others, well don't get me started...
Further down the table we have other boring sides like Birmingham, Blackburn and Stoke. Yes, all difficult to beat at home but the emphasis is on not losing rather then trying to win and setting out to merely stop the other, better, sides from playing. Is that really good for the game?
Don't get me wrong the Premier League has become far more competitive and unpredictable this season but don't try to pretend that the quality has increased. The fact that our clubs failed so miserably in the Champions League last season is testiment to that.
Lets not forget that Chelsea won the Premier League scoring over 100 goals last season, the first time that had been achieved in the top flight for nearly 40 years, yet they were nowhere near good enough when it came to competing against the best teams in Europe, and the same could be said of Arsenal and Manchester United.
The fact remains that this Chelsea side are not in the same league as the great sides of the recent past; like Manchester United's treble team of 1999, the Arsenal Invincibles of 2004 or even the Chelsea sides that won the title in 2005 and 2006.
They may have smashed 6,7 and 8 goals past the likes of Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wigan last season but that said more about the deficiencies of the opposition then anything else.
So lets enjoy the openness of the Premier League this season, lets enjoy sides like Sunderland beating Chelsea and Newcastle beating Arsenal but lets but lets not kid ourselves it is the best league in the World...