Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola passionately addressed critics who attempted to belittle their achievements solely due to their financial advantage.

The club is two wins away from becoming the first English club to win four successive top-flight league titles.

Guardiola strongly refuted claims that their success is primarily attributed to money, highlighting several major rivals who are big spenders but have lacked trophies in recent years.

"For that reason why, Man United should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea all the titles. And third, Arsenal, all the titles. They spend as much money in the last five years as us. They should be there. They are not there," the 53-year-old tactician said.

The Spanish manager also emphasized the difficulty of winning four league titles in a row, highlighting that previous dynasties, such as Liverpool in the 1980s, Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990s, Chelsea with Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich, and Arsenal with Arsene Wenger during the 2000s, were not able to achieve this.

Manchester City has surprisingly low net spend

Manchester City has low net spending compared to its major rivals over the past five seasons, starting from the 2019 summer transfer window and ending in the 2024 winter transfer window in January.

The club was only ranked sixth in the Premier League during that span, with Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and Newcastle United occupying the top five positions.

Liverpool, who won one Premier League title in that period, ranked ninth.