Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi) 

Fans in UAE are not finished soaking in the pride of the club Manchester City winning four English Premier League (EPL) titles in a row when they beat West Ham United on May 19. 

For the club and the players, there was not enough time to celebrate as they had the FA Cup also to contest, which eventually ended on a disappointing note as they lost to their derby rivals, Manchester United. 

However, the club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has said a fifth successive EPL title is already on the task list and work is on the way. 

Speaking in an interview in Abu Dhabi to review the season internally, Al Mubarak spoke on various aspects, starting with his appreciation and plaudits for what manager Pep Guardiola and his men managed to achieve in Premier League despite the setbacks of missing out on FA Cup and the Champions League in Europe, where they lost out at the quarter-final stage. 

"Since 1926, five teams have attempted to win four times in a row – Huddersfield, Arsenal, Liverpool in the 80s and then Manchester United have attempted it twice," Al Mubarak said. 

With a stress on his lines, he added: "None of them succeeded. So over and over 100 years of English football, never any team was able to achieve four Premier League championships in a row. So once that sinks in, you start really appreciating the magnitude of what was achieved... the difficulty, the challenge, the tenacity required." 

The chairman insisted there is no stopping the team too. "What next? Five in a row. That five in a row in our minds happened to the second that final whistle, against West Ham. I remember going down to the pitch and telling almost everybody I saw, 'Fantastic result, was so proud. But now we're going for five in a row'." 

Defending the miss in Europe, he said: "No team actually beat us in 90 minutes or 120 minutes. We lost, at the end of the day, at the jeopardy of penalty kicks. Winner or loser, it's a flip of a coin. We played against the most decorated team in European history. But there's always a silver lining; it gives us more hunger, more tenacity that you see today. 

"I think it reflects nicely, or accurately, on how our coaching staff, the management team, our leadership, the board, the owner His Highness Sheikh Mansour [bin Zayed], and, of course, everybody feels proud and delighted with what we achieved this year." 

Mubarak's vision for a fifth crown in England and reviving the European campaign will depend again on Guardiola, who is in the last year of his contract for an eighth season in a row. The Catalan has acknowledged that the motivation on the "what next" question is diminishing for him and it may be the "beginning of the end". 

"It's hard to put in words what Pep has given this organisation and this club," Al Mubarak said. "He has racked up every record almost in the book, managerially. I think will be very, very hard, in the future to ever break. 

"With Pep, we've had this conversation many times before over the years of the contract. Pep has always been fully committed to every contract he signed with us. As we always have done, we will find the right solution, at the right time, that works for Pep and works for us." 

The interview was recorded before it emerged through media reports on Wednesday that the City has initiated legal action against the Premier League for what it calls unfair restrictions through the Associated Party Regulations of the league concerning financial fair play and transfers. 

City's legal action begins next Monday and it counters the autumn hearing into the 115 charges, mostly about allegedly not providing accurate information over their revenue." 

City are arguing in their lawsuit that sponsors should be allowed to decide how much they want to pay and also that the current charges are based on "allegations" by commentators of the game.