Walter rallies the troops with Ginola and Carsley signings

Everton's increasingly desperate plight in the Premiership relegation zone has prompted Walter Smith to add silk and steel to his ravaged squad.

And in doing so he has achieved the shock signing of the season by giving French ace David Ginola an escape route from his nightmare at Aston Villa and plunged him into the warfare of a relegation battle.

And while the silky, smooth - and that is not just his hair - Ginola has moved to Goodison Park on a free transfer, initially until the end of the season, boss Smith has also added tough Republic of Ireland international Lee Carsley for £1.9million from Coventry.

Smith has made his third signing in a week - he paid £2.5million for Sweden international Tobias Linderoth last weekend - and all are in the squad to face title-chasing Arsenal in tomorrow's clash in Goodison.

To sign Ginola (34) after his highly public run-ins with Gregory, seems a massive gamble for Smith.

But the Everton manager said: "He's got a terrific level of ability. There may have been a lot of things said about him in recent seasons, but nobody has said he's not a good player with decent ability.

"He will bring that ability to us for the last few months of the season and hopefully we will make good use of it." After the sterile home defeat by Ipswich last week Smith knew he had to do something and with the soon-to-be-completed financial re-packaging of the club money has at last been made available for the Scot.

The signings of Ginola and Carsley were both rushed through yesterday morning - Carsley initially on a short loan because his medical results were not cleared in time for him to face Arsenal. Both will go straight into the clash with the north Londoners.

Jaap Stam has had his ban for nandrolone use reduced from five to four months. An appeal board from the Italian Football Federation heard the cases of both Lazio's Stam and Brescia's Josep Guardiola and decided the pair should receive similar bans.

Argentinian striker Hernan Crespo believes Juan Sebastian Veron will be put off a return to Lazio by the Rome club's underachievement this season. The pair were together in the Lazio team which finished third in Serie A last season, but Alberto Zaccheroni's side are floundering in eighth this term. Crespo has threatened to quit himself at the end of the season, two years after joining from Parma for £35.7 million.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has admitted that opening the curtains to a Union Jack in his front garden had been "disconcerting" for his family. The six-foot flag was planted at his home just hours after his side's Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat to arch rivals Rangers on Tuesday night.