ELITE means that because English teams are improving at such a fast rate, the rapidity of their improvement alone is overshafowing the slower, steadier imporovement of the Spanish and Italian leagues, both of which are on an equally high level.
And now for my ideas: I would not say that England has the top league in the world. I would say that they have the top 'top 4 teams' in the world. But below those 4, the quality of soccer drops significantly. It deteriorates into the old English 'long ball, run hard' style of play, which would get them nowhere against an Italian or Spanish team in a similar position in their respective leagues. Take Spain for example: almost all Spanish teams play beautiful, well crafted soccer. It is the teams with flair that rule the league, and that is the main difference between a team like Bilbao and a team like Barcelona. In England, teams are separated by flair, and also by an incredible stylistic gap created by a lack of foreign-born talent in the lower teams. Lets admit it: English players like to lob the ball and run. You dont see that with teams like Man U and Chelsea because they have foreign talent. In Spain and other countries, all plauers are trained to play possession, and to play some sort of adaptation of Cruyff's Total Football. The lower quality English clubs dont do that yet.