SINGAPORE -- Chelsea full-back Marcos Alonso has said Tottenham are contenders for this season's Premier League title, just a day after his manager Antonio Conte questioned Spurs' ambition.
On Wednesday, Conte suggested that Tottenham had lower expectations than other top teams, saying that a failure to do well in big competitions was not a "tragedy" for the North London club.
Alonso, however, considers last year's Premier League runners-up as genuine title contenders.
"It's hard to say who our main challengers will be in the Premier League because there are so many teams that can win the league," Alonso said. "It's so unpredictable as we saw with Leicester [winning the title] in 2016.
"This year, we have to consider both teams from Manchester, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal. There are so many good teams with good players and we'll have to work hard to win the title again."
Chelsea return to the Champions League this season after a year's absence and Alonso says the battle to win the trophy they won in 2012 will be just as competitive as the Premier League.
They got a flavour of the level of challenge they will face when they were beaten 3-2 by Bayern Munich in Singapore on Tuesday and next go up against Inter Milan in the International Champions Cup on Saturday.
"The Champions League will be difficult as well as it has the best teams in Europe," Alonso said. "It's an important competition for us but we'll also have to work hard in this to do well."
Alonso is pleased that Chelsea have been strengthened this summer by new recruits including defender Antonio Rudiger and striker Alvaro Morata.
"We have added some very good players, like Antonio and Alvaro," Alonso said. "And we still have most of the same players from last year. We are working hard, playing some good opposition and hopefully we'll be ready for the first game of the season in a couple of weeks."