Yeah, a league whether there's next to no Englishman in every team to bring out the 'weak Frenchies' argument.
Not implying that nationality is a definite factor in more fight, more determination fwiw. Just that you have to take into account whether the players are allowed time to settle down and buy into the team ethos. Wenger has done a great job in this aspect for instance.
In short, the new players have come in at a rough time and haven't really been allowed to bed into the team/league and that affects their performances rather than nationality per se being a factor. Given more time, they will come good.