I understand the point you are making about the absence of the English players, however, the pace and almost 'gung ho' attitude is typical of the English game over the years, making games competitive - even the David and Goliath challenges. Rather than say the way the great game is played, and indeed controlled, in many foreign nations.[^]
Anyway when was this golden age of English football, free of foreigners? I can't recall an English team that wasn't full of foreign players, be they Scot, Welsh or Irish! Indeed many of the great English teams were managed by foreigners, Busby and Shankly come to mind