I'd disagree insofar as I don't think too many people have been surprised by what's happened...one interesting thing to come out of this tournament though, is the notion that you can chuck decent higher end Prem players, like Jagielka, Johnson and Baines in and they will step up on effort alone.
It will be instructive to look at say the last 4 teams standing in Brazil and see how many Prem players are in them...I'll hazard a guess it wont be too many.
Earlier in this thread I suggested looking at the WC semi finalists....read an article by Barney Ronay, whose writing I admire, in which he has done just that....
In 2014 the Premier League has seven players left at this stage (including used substitutes), with nine in 2010, nine in 2006, five in 2002 and 10 in 1998. This time around, based on last starting XIs plus returning suspendees, the 44 footballers who will contest the semi-finals are likely to be made up of 10 Bundesliga players, seven from the Premier League, six from La Liga, six from the Eredivisie, four from Serie A, four from Ligue 1, two from the Turkish league and one each from Russia, Brazil, Portugal, the US and Mexico.
Within this, Bayern Munich will provide the same number as the combined Premier League, while Real Madrid and Barcelona have six between them.
Not terribly impressive for the self styled "best league in the world"
Whole article here...
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jul/07/brazil-2014-premier-league-world-cup