English football loves nothing more than a "crisis". At least one top club is supposedly in crisis at any one point -- obviously, it's currently Chelsea -- but at the moment, the Premier League is supposedly suffering a league-wide crisis.
The continued underperformance of English clubs in the Champions League means the coefficient has suffered, and therefore the Premier League is coming under attack -- albeit a not particularly forceful attack -- from Serie A for a fourth place in the Champions League. The level of the top clubs has clearly dropped, but the result has been a far more interesting league.