Talking about Tottenham, they should be able to improve themselves to be more ready for even higher competition, because they are playing well, but they are still there. I mean when other teams improve they don't, so they compete in that sphere only. Actually, if they want, they are very capable of competing, even fighting for the championship, but as we can see they can only compete in that position and never improve.
Tottenham had a good situation for weeks and the only reason for them not having good results was the players they had, because, unlike other teams, Tottenham couldn't hire enough good players and they didn't invest a lot in it, while Tottenham couldn't find the problem and they fired the coach instead of trusting for rest of the season, they could easily keep Conte and then hire better players at the end of the season, this way they could have a much better chance to get a better place in the premier league.