Watts was speaking on his YouTube channel and harped back to the situation that surprised fans earlier in the campaign.
Despite being crucial for Arsenal last season, Gabriel sat on the bench for a few games at the start of this campaign.
And at the time Gabriel was being linked with a move to Saudi Arabia.
Watts has now explained that Arteta wasn’t just dropping Gabriel for Arsenal because of a certain game plan, instead there were other things at hand.
He said: “I’ve said it already before, I don’t think it was purely tactical.
“I think the Saudi thing was definitely, 100%, well in fact there was definitely stuff going on.
“I can’t say for certain that it was purely because of that, but it wasn’t, I don’t think it was just tactical, not from what I was hearing.
“There was certainly stuff going on that, until the Saudi window was shut, until everything was sorted, it didn’t surprise me that Gabriel came back into the Arsenal team after that – put it that way.”
Gabriel is now crucial for Arsenal and Arteta once again
Of course, given his performances of late it now seems unthinkable for Gabriel to be missing from this Arsenal side.
Alongside William Saliba, the £27m defender has reignited one of the best centre-back duos in the league.And although Arsenal are now being linked with Marc Guehi, it would surely take a lot to disturb that duo.
Gabriel is currently away with Brazil and did score their solitary goal against Venezuela on Friday evening.
The 25-year-old now seems to have finally broken into the first XI for his country – a very proud feat.
And despite the noise in the summer, Arteta will now surely be very excited to continue working with Gabriel at Arsenal.
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