Packed schedule will show whether Tottenham are contenders – Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte believes the time to judge Tottenham will be during the upcoming busy period where the club will play once every three days.

Spurs have started the new Premier League season with seven points out of a possible nine but now embark on a two-and-a-half-month schedule where they will play 20 matches across domestic and European competitions.

A flurry of new additions in the summer raised expectations at Tottenham and Conte knows how they handle this packed fixture list, starting with a trip to Nottingham Forest on Sunday, will go a long way to deciding whether they can truly be called contenders.

He said: “I was talking also with (managing director) Fabio Paratici about this difficulty. To play one game every seven days is one thing. To play many games every three days is totally different.

“This is the period where you understand which team and which squad are really good to be competitive.

“For many situations to play every three days, for injuries, because players start to be tired and you have to make rotations, it’s the right moment to understand if your squad’s depth is good, is the depth right and quality right?”

Conte has stressed a number of times about the need to have two players for every position due to Spurs being back in the Champions League this season.

The draw took place on Thursday and Tottenham are alongside Eintracht Frankfurt, Sporting Lisbon and Marseille in Group D. While they avoided some of Europe’s biggest clubs, the 53-year-old was not willing to underestimate any of their opponents.

“We’re talking about the most important and difficult competition in Europe, maybe in the world because you find the best teams in the world in this competition,” Conte insisted.

“I think the draw and