You deserve to be where you are. I think you've got a bit fortunate in the sense of, quite a few times I've seen you this season I've not been impressed and it's been a case of just getting over the line as opposed to playing convincingly better than the opposition. But that's about where any sense of you being fortunate to be where you are ends. A very good team spirit, a solid defence and talented goalkeeper, and a striker who has been bang in form consistently.
Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal - none of them can say they have all of those components. That's why you're competing well with them.
Of course, it's an entirely different question to ask whether you think in a broad footballing sense you deserve to be 5th, which is perhaps what Cronky is getting at. But everything's relative, isn't it? You can only finish in front of and behind what's in front of you.