Man City proved Jurgen Klopp was right with his final comment on 115 charges

Man City have made history by becoming the first team to win the English top flight four years in a row but the reaction from rivals fans showed it doesn't get the respect it deserves.

Pep Guardiola congratulates staff after Man City's victory as Premier League champions before the trophy ceremony.

But what about the charges? On a cloudless day at the Etihad, the clouds were gathering over the rest of the Premier League. Manchester City have become the history boys but it's a place in the record books that comes with an asterisk next to it for some.

The first team to win four top-flight titles in English football have set new standards but they didn't get the bouquets thrown at their feet on Sunday. Aside from at the Etihad that is, which to City fans is all that matters. The Premier League's most powerful figure was at the Emirates, after all, hoping for a miracle.

In the days that follow this historic success you can already predict the narrative. The rolling news channels and the radio phone-ins will be dominated by talk of that mythical figure: 115. The number of charges the Premier League have levelled at City. Do they take something away from this day in the sun? Is the most successful team in English football tainted until the case is heard?

Not here they're not. City remain convinced they will clear their name and the supporters here trust them. So does Pep Guardiola, the real architect of the strokes of genius we see week in, week out in this most demanding of leagues. For Arsenal and their fans, for Liverpool, for Manchester United, the charges remain a tool to use to pretend this title was another to add to the list of illegitimate gongs being gathered at the Etihad.

Predictably, Lance Armstrong was trending again on social media at 6pm. The disgraced drug cheat has become the go-to meme for football fans who equate City's success to Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles which were stripped from him after the extent of his cheating became apparent.

It is a disingenuous comparison given the nature of Armstrong's crimes compared to City's. Actual doping vs financial doping? Or maybe the club with the biggest revenues in the Premier League are just smarter than everyone else? It is an easy accusation to throw at City that their success is predictable because they spend more than everyone else, but they don't.

If the Blues are blowing everyone else out of the water with their financial muscle, why did none of their Premier League rivals stump up the £15million to sign Manuel Ajanji? Or Stefan Ortega on a free transfer.

Armstrong juiced up his body to be bigger, faster and stronger than his rivals in the Alps and the Pyrenees. It was an act of pre-meditated cheating more equivalent to Guardiola fielding 12 players every week. It actually just looks like that is what he's doing.

City have spent similar amounts to their usual rivals. In fact, in the last five years, their net spend is lower than the teams they have fought off. If money is the key to success, why do Manchester United remain a shambles?

"Before do you know what it was? It was the money [that won titles]," said Guardiola. "For that reason why: Man United should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea all the titles. And the 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.

"For that reason, Girona shouldn't be in the Champions League, and Leicester shouldn't win the Premier League years ago. Now it's boring? It's not boring. It’s so difficult to be here again and we want to win it.

"But to do something that in this country no team has done it, you have to do something special, exceptional, I would say. It has not happened in the Premier League ever and we have to do it this time. History is in front of us and we have to accept that we have not done it; it is the time to do it. Otherwise, Arsenal will be champions."

In his final pre-match press conference before heading into the sunset Jurgen Klopp - who stands to gain more than most if the case against City is proven - played down the actual impact of the charges on the footballing success story at the Etihad.

"Everybody knows about the 115 charges, but I have no clue what that means, I only know the number. Regardless of what has transpired at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola is the best manager in the world - and that's crucial," he said.

"If you put any other manager in that club, they don't win the league four times in a row. That's down to him and his team. Does that mean they can do whatever they want? No. But I don't know what they did - if they did anything - and I'm not here to accuse them."

The United States Anti-Doping Agency called Armstrong's cheating “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." City's route to success clearly isn't on this scale. If anything, they have the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful football program the sport has ever seen.

How they got there will form the basis of the Premier League's case. They feel City circumnavigated financial rules to supercharge their revolution at the beginning of the Abu Dhabi era.

Inside the Etihad, City's supporters will tell you those rules were only ever in place to protect the elite anyway. To keep the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United safe from the insurgents.

Now this is a football club built to succeed and do so on a regular basis. They are the history makers. The first club to do four in a row, six titles in seven years and eight under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour.

In November 2012, soon after he had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, Armstrong posted a defiant picture to social media of him relaxing on a sofa surrounded by those framed yellow jerseys. It was typical of Armstrong, but whatever happens from here, nobody inside the Etihad on Sunday will ever accept the idea that any of the titles they have since 2012 are tainted either. They deserve this place in the pantheon of the game in this country