Pep Guardiola is only telling half the story as the reality of Liverpool and the Premier League becomes clear

Pep Guardiola has flatly rejected the suggestion that Manchester City winning the Premier League again is “boring” for English football. If the Etihad side beat Spurs today, they will be one win away from a fourth successive league title win.

“It’s not boring,” Guardiola told the media ahead of his team’s visit to Tottenham. “It’s difficult. Before it was money. That’s why Manchester United should have won all the titles, Chelsea — all the titles, Arsenal — all the titles.

“They are spending as much money in the last five years as we are. They should be there. They are not there. For this reason, Girona should not be in the Champions League (next season) and Leicester should not win Premier League.

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All of this is true, of course. It’s one thing to have money and quite another to spend it wisely, and there’s no better example of that than Chelsea. But there is more to the story than Guardiola would have you believe.

While this could be Manchester City’s fourth title in a row, without Liverpool’s runaway victory in the season which was delayed by the Covid epidemic, Guardiola’s men would be on the verge of a seventh title in a row. Although clearly not for Liverpool fans, even that was boring to some degree considering the Reds finished with 18 points.

If Manchester City win the title again this season, it may not be a boring result for the neutral, but at least it will be a predictable one. Few would be so fussed if Guardiola’s men triumph again: the real story comes out if Arsenal somehow do.

That was also the case when Liverpool previously pursued Manchester City, but not because of the teams involved. If anything team had won the league as many times as Manchester City, the novelty wears off.

For this reason, most Liverpool fans would prefer Guardiola’s men to win the title again. If Arsenal win, the Gunners will be another contender like the Reds. If Manchester City win, it’s business as usual. This will be brushed off pretty quickly.

Guardiola is right that his side deserve credit for spending money well, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a reason there’s more talk about whether Arsenal can catch Manchester City right now than Guardiola could put together an even longer run.

Without Liverpool’s victory – an anomaly, given the extremely short list of names who have won the title in Leicester City’s strange year – the reality is that it would become even more obvious.