Manchester United and Chelsea would be challenging Manchester City and Arsenal for the Premier League title if success only came down to money spent, says Pep Guardiola.

The City manager rejects the notion his side’s success is getting boring – and says if money was the only reason for it they would not be at the top.

City are two wins from a historic fourth successive English league title, and three wins from becoming the first club to do the domestic league and FA Cup Double in successive seasons.

There has seemed to be an air of inevitability about their success after a 21-match unbeaten run that has included just four draws.

They have won their past four games by an aggregate score of 15-1.

Although they have never scored a league goal at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, few expect City to drop points and they are overwhelming favourites to beat West Ham on the final day.

“It’s not boring,” said Guardiola. “It’s difficult.

“Before it was the money. For that reason, Manchester United should have won all the titles, Chelsea – all the titles, Arsenal – all the titles. They spend as much money in the last five years as us. They should be there. They are not there.

“For that reason Girona shouldn’t be in the Champions League [next season] and Leicester should win the Premier League.”

While City can hardly be characterised as a plucky underdog, they believe the club is seventh in the list of net spend in the Premier League over the past five years, less than half that of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal but also trailing Tottenham, Newcastle and Aston Villa.

A substantial factor in bringing their figure down to £259m has been their ability to sell players such as Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Cole Palmer for huge sums.

None of these players would be regarded as automatic first choices and while they are part of the City journey, without them they are closing on becoming the first side since the English league was created in 1888 to win the top flight four seasons in a row.

Guardiola says the thought was not in the forefront of City minds at the start of the season. But now it is close, an understanding of what the achievement would mean is beginning to take shape.

“In the beginning of the season we didn’t think about it,” he said. “But then we were in February, March and April, we were still there. After that it ignites something in all our heads.

“No team has done it. That shows how hard it is. Liverpool in the ’80s, Sir Alex Ferguson’s United in the ’90s. Chelsea with [Roman] Abramovich and Jose [Mourinho], Arsenal with [Arsene] Wenger didn’t do it.”