Gabriel may not have seen much action on the pitch since his arrival at January but he’s more than getting to grips with his new city.

Speaking to Arsenal.com the Brazilian, who arrived from Villarreal with his wife and son, believes the warm welcome he has been afforded has helped him to settle, sure that he will improve as his English does.

Here he explains how the move came about in the first place:

“I had the dream of playing in England. So I talked to my agent – not to put pressure on him by asking to come to England, but by saying that I had this dream.

“He said: “the way you’re doing, you can rest assured that you will get a very good proposal. I’m not sure if it will come from England, but you will hear from a big club because of the work you’ve been doing.”

“So we had this chat at my place and a few days later, before the end of the year, we talked again and he said that Arsenal had called saying they were interested in me.

“So to me that was a sign. God always answers my dreams, he knows my wishes. God is always present in my life. I have a lot of faith in God.

“So I was very happy [when I found out Arsenal were interested], but I carried on working for Villarreal, doing my job. I had a contract there, and I had to defend the colours of the club that paid me. So I carried on working just the same.

“The days passed and it started to appear in the press. It appeared in the Brazilian media and I had my family asking about it, so all that began to grow. And I remained as always – centred, calm and focused on my team, and then I got the official offer. 

“I transferred here, and what’s most difficult at the moment is to talk to people, because I don’t speak English.”

Settling in nicely, the defender has already got himself a house for himself and his family although he is still, it seems, without furniture which you would think might be easier to come across than a house that suits.

“Thanks to God we have already found the house. The only problem is that we need to buy furniture, because here it’s very difficult to find a house with everything in it.

“My biggest problem is just speaking but in terms of settling, I am totally adapted here at the club and with my team-mates, who are all wonderful and friendly. It’s a family club.

“Everyone that works at the club is respectful and very attentive, they are always at your disposal. So I am very happy and so is my family. My wife and my son are happy.

“If my wife and my son are happy I feel even happier, and it gives me more strength and more will to work.”

Certainly one for the future, we love what we’ve already seen from Gabriel and we fully expect to see significantly more of him in the starting lineup next season.