As Lyon bask in the glory of a fourth consecutive League title, the rest of Ligue 1 will be left scratching its head wondering how to prevent them from making it five next season.

Since Jacques Santini guided the club to its first League crown in 2002 by beating eventual runners-up Lens on the last day of the season, Lyon have slowly seized a stranglehold on French football.

Two years ago Monaco and Marseille thought they were in with a shout up until the penultimate weekend, while in 2004 Lyon clinched the title again in Week 37 despite trailing Monaco by 11 points at one stage.

This season has been a different story. Not only did Lyon seal their triumph with three matches to spare - becoming only the third club alongside Saint-Etienne and Marseille to win the League four years in a row - they did it with such ease, class and finesse that none of their so-called rivals ever stood a chance.

True, Monaco were looking good when they beat Paris Saint-Germain to move to within six points in January, but seven subsequent games without a win ended their flimsy hopes. Lille had Lyon looking over their shoulders when they beat the champions to close to within three points in Week 22, but the fact their Coach Claude Puel was still talking about relegation at the time said much for their ambitions. The players seemed to listen and Lille failed to win in their next eight matches.

Sunday’s 2-1 win over Ajaccio merely confirmed what every football expert in France had been predicting since around October time. Lyon have simply been too good this season, oozing quality and cover in every department.

They will lose their talented Coach Paul Le Guen in the summer, but crucially the man who has inspired the club’s ascent, Jean-Michel Aulas, remains.

Few people in Lyon even cared about football when the successful software entrepreneur was appointed President in 1987, but Aulas has steadily transformed the club from a non-entity into one of the city’s biggest attractions. In creating and developing the OL brand (there are now OL hairdressers, taxi stations, travel agents and cafés dotted around the town) Aulas has given Lyon the financial foundations to compete with Europe’s finest.

Next season they will play in the Champions’ League for the sixth consecutive year, while Canal Plus’ decision to pay more money to show Ligue 1 matches than Sky pay to screen the Premiership will add considerably to Lyon’s kitty.

“Our objective will be to win a fifth title, but more than anything it will be to reach the Champions’ League Final at the Stade de France,” Aulas declared during Sunday night’s celebrations.

Lyon will have their pick of France’s best Coaches this summer, while Aulas has made it clear he would like to make three big signings: a proven goalscorer, a defensive midfielder and a replacement for Sidney Govou, who looks certain to leave. Assuming that ‘le triangle d'or’ of Michael Essien, Juninho Pernambucano and Mahamadou Diarra stay - something that now looks likely - Lyon will be capable of winning Europe’s top prize.

“If we do lose anyone, they will be replaced by equally good if not better players,” Aulas vowed. “We’re in a strong position because we have no obligation to sell and we have been planning our recruitment for months now.”

The situation could hardly be more different at PSG and Marseille, where the two supposed giants of the French game continue to squabble amongst themselves, changing Presidents and Coaches on a whim and stumbling from one crisis to another.

The champions’ biggest threat next season will surely come from Monaco who are looking to buy big this summer. Wilson Oruma, Camel Meriem, Didier Zokora, Olivier Sorlin and Olivier Kapo, all gifted players who have proved themselves in Ligue 1, are being linked with the principality club.

Lyon, though, may choose to flex their muscles by poaching Monaco’s biggest asset of all - their Coach Didier Deschamps.

Should the former France captain move to the Stade Gerland, next season’s title race would surely turn into a procession. But whoever Aulas appoints, a record-breaking fifth title in a row is very much on the cards.