Grab a cold pint, pull up a wobbly bar stool, and try to explain this Arsenal season with a straight face. One minute they are face-planting against League Two Fleetwood in the Carabao Cup, and the next they are marching into Anfield and dismantling Liverpool like seasoned conquerors.

That is the manic reality Mikel Arteta is dealing with in north London right now. Defending a Premier League title is supposed to bring a sense of royal authority and calm control. Instead, the Gunners are running on pure adrenaline with a locker room that is quietly bubbling with drama.

The victory on Merseyside was monumental, breaking a stubborn hoodoo that had haunted the club since 2012. That win wiped away the stink of cup humiliation and put their domestic ambitions right back on track.

Fresh off a midweek Champions League scrap in Prague against Slavia Prague, they now welcome Hull City to the Emirates this Saturday. The Tigers already pulled off a shocker against Manchester United this season, and their stubborn run of draws makes them an annoying mid-table pest. If Arsenal handle their business, they move six points clear of Manchester City before Pep Guardiola takes his side into the lion's den at Nottingham Forest.

On paper, everything looks golden at the top of the table. Dig just an inch beneath the surface, however, and you will find a defensive puzzle so volatile it might force a major January exit.

The Fleetwood hangover and the Anfield exorcism

We need to have an honest conversation about Fleetwood Town before anyone starts carving Arsenal's name onto the trophy again. Losing a cup tie to a fourth-tier club is not just bad luck; it was an inexcusable display of arrogance from Arteta's rotated squad. When you wear the crown of English champions, you cannot show up to a lower-league ground and sleepwalk through ninety minutes.

Arteta deserved every bit of the criticism hurled at him by furious supporters after that midweek disaster. If your backup players cannot handle League Two opposition, your boast of having elite squad depth is completely hollow.

That is what made the Anfield triumph such a surreal turnaround. Arsenal had not tasted a league victory at Liverpool in over a decade, back when Robin van Persie was still scoring volleys in north London. To go into that cauldron with the pressure cranked to eleven and snatch three points showed incredible bottle.

Going from the swampy battlegrounds of the lower leagues to the electric buzz of Anfield is the ultimate football culture shock. Arsenal passed the glamour test with flying colours, but champions are defined by how they grind when nobody is clapping.

From there, the squad had to immediately pack their passports for a grinding European trip to face Slavia Prague. That constant treadmill of elite competition tests a squad physically, but the mental strain is where cracks begin to show.

Now they have to snap back into domestic mode against surprise package Hull City. The Tigers are playing with house money and would love nothing more than to spoil the mood at the Emirates. If Arteta's squad spends Saturday looking ahead to City's trip to Forest, they will end up flat on their backs.

Piero Hincapie and the six-month itch

Winning matches usually keeps everybody smiling, but the transfer market never sleeps. Just six months after completing a permanent switch to Arsenal, Ecuadorian international Piero Hincapie is already eyeing the emergency exit. The £35m defender was supposed to be a cornerstone of Arteta's defensive rotation, but his north London adventure is souring fast.

According to reports in Spain from SPORT, Barcelona have officially revived their long-standing interest and opened talks for a January switch. The La Liga champions wanted the 24-year-old over the summer and now see a golden window of opportunity to pounce.

Hincapie has dealt with frustrating injury setbacks that robbed him of early-season rhythm. While he was stuck in the medical room, Riccardo Calafiori locked down the left-back spot with authority. To make matters worse for the Ecuadorian, Ezri Konsa stepped into central defence and made himself virtually undroppable.

As Mirror Football reported, Hincapie has fallen down the pecking order at a dizzying pace. When you are twenty-four and playing for a top national team, sitting on the bench during your peak athletic years feels like a prison sentence.

It is hard to blame Hincapie for listening when a giant like Barcelona comes calling. When your manager leaves you cold on the bench week after week, loyalty evaporates before the winter snow even hits.

Arteta faces a nasty dilemma here because depth is what separates champions from runners-up. Letting a gifted defender pack his bags for Camp Nou in the middle of a title race sounds crazy on paper. On the other hand, keeping an unsettled player around a high-pressure locker room can poison the water cooler real fast.

Barcelona are actively hunting for central defensive help, and Hincapie fits their profile like a glove. If the Spanish champions make a serious bid in January, Arteta will have to decide whether stubbornness is worth a divided dressing room.

Rio Ferdinand's wild tactical pitch

The reason Hincapie is stuck in limbo is that Arsenal's central defence has been playing lights-out football. Ezri Konsa arrived from Aston Villa in the summer and immediately formed a ruthless partnership with Gabriel. They have bullied opposing forwards and turned Arsenal's penalty box into a no-fly zone.

Now comes the complication that is keeping Arteta awake at night. William Saliba has finally returned from the long-term back injury that kept him sidelined for months.

Saliba is not just an ordinary player returning from injury; he is one half of the defensive pairing that won Arsenal the league. You do not leave a player of his calibre sitting on the pine in a title fight. Benching Konsa after his stellar form, however, would send an awful message to the rest of the squad.

Former Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand jumped right into the debate on his Rio Ferdinand Presents show. Ferdinand insisted that the French international is simply impossible to leave out:

"I think Saliba is one of those guys that you have to find room for in the team. He's that good, he's top."

Instead of sacrificing one of his stars, Ferdinand proposed an ambitious reshuffle of the backline. He highlighted Konsa's remarkable reliability as the key to unlocking the entire puzzle:

"I said to my son yesterday, 'Watch Ezri Konsa', because everything he does is efficient. That's a great problem for Arteta to have. I wouldn't be surprised if Konsa goes back to right-back once Saliba comes back. I wouldn't be surprised because Konsa is top."

Konsa has lined up at right-back for England, so the concept is not completely unhinged. Even so, moving an elite centre-back out wide to accommodate a returning teammate is a massive roll of the dice. You risk blunting Konsa's natural strengths while disturbing the chemistry that Gabriel has built beside him.

Ferdinand understands the delicate chemistry of title-winning locker rooms better than most pundits barking on television. He knows that benching a red-hot defender like Konsa can fracture trust in an instant. Finding a compromise that keeps both Konsa and Saliba happy is Arteta's ultimate managerial test.

Arteta has earned a reputation for being an overthinker when the stakes are highest. Forcing Konsa into an unnatural role just to avoid having tough conversations with his stars could easily backfire against sharp counter-attacking teams.

January shopping and the trap game on Saturday

The defensive headache is only one part of the puzzle heading toward the new year. As detailed in the latest Emirates transfer round-up, Arteta is also searching for reinforcements to boost his attacking options. Arsenal know that maintaining their lead over Manchester City requires more firepower in reserve.

If the board wants to green-light a marquee attacking signing in January, cashing in on Hincapie might become necessary. Player trading at this level is ruthless, and sacrifices are made every day to fund upgrades elsewhere on the pitch.

All of those grand winter plans will look foolish if Arsenal take their eye off the ball this weekend. Hull City have proven they can be giant-killers, and their defensive discipline has frustrated plenty of Premier League sides this autumn. Dropping points at home to a mid-table side right after slaying Liverpool would be peak football comedy.

Arteta has to navigate European fatigue, appease frustrated benchwarmers, and solve a massive central defensive riddle. It is chaotic, stressful, and loaded with drama, but that is the price of sitting on the Premier League throne.