EVERTON’S win against Arsenal last week brought fans some much-needed hope, but if the club are to remain on a positive footing, what came before that needs to remain at the forefront of the minds of those making the decisions.

Demarai Gray’s sensational strike in added time to secure that victory produced a memorable moment for Evertonians in what has been a difficult season.

Gray takes the headlines, and deservedly so, but the sight of Allan, Richarlison, Abdoulaye Doucoure and others out on their feet come the end of those ninety-plus minutes at Goodison Park, showed how much the whole team had put into a game which felt huge in terms of Everton’s season and potentially for the club’s whole outlook.

The efforts of players on the pitch that Monday night handed a lifeline to those in charge. Supporters had planned a walkout on the 27th minute during the Arsenal game to highlight the club’s 27-year trophy drought, but the players stepped up and gave many a reason to stay in their seats.

Those who did walk out did so with good reason. Their actions also prompted a moment where the fans really got behind the team which lasted for much of the rest of the game. 

The mere prospect of such supporter activism after a heavy defeat in the Merseyside Derby had already forced the owners and directors to take note.

Questions were asked around what the walkout was meant to achieve. What were they protesting against?

Everton have spent a lot of money on their football team in recent years as a result of backing provided by owner Farhad Moshiri.

In the five seasons prior to Benitez’s arrival only Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have spent more on players.

Investment in the playing squad was needed if Everton were to keep up with teams such as those listed and also the more savvy spenders including Leicester, Liverpool, and more recently, Aston Villa and West Ham.

But Everton squandered most of this money due to the lack of an overall plan, a lack of identity, jumbled recruitment of managers and players, and a scattergun approach to the direction of their football.

It’s a complicated thing to protest against as there are many strands to the problem, but the fact it had come to a walkout being suggested at all was enough to rouse the board into action.

The club’s director of football Marcel Brands was probably a necessary scapegoat but was a scapegoat nevertheless. 

The Dutchman was sacked in those days after the Liverpool defeat in what felt like a token gesture from a club signalling their intent to change the way they go about running the sporting side of things.

It always felt like Brands was a director of football who wasn’t able to direct football. Managers were appointed alongside him or, as felt like the case with Ancelotti and Benitez, above him, meaning he couldn’t carry out his role, part of which should be to choose the manager.

Reporting by Greg O’Keeffe and Patrick Boyland for the Athletic and by Phil Kirkbride in the Liverpool Echo after Brands’s exit confirmed many football decisions were made without his input and he wasn’t able to carry out his role as director of football to its full capacity.

Ultimately, there is no point having a director of football if they aren’t going to be the driving force behind key football decisions. Again, the problem wasn’t necessarily Brands himself, but with Everton’s football operation as a whole.

This feeling that there needs to be a change of approach from the top, above the manager and director of football, has to remain prominent, and the Arsenal win should be further motivation rather than it suggesting things might actually be OK.

The appointment of Benitez itself has not been without its problems, but at least the Spaniard’s own transfer business has been savvy. 

He has not had much choice. Given Everton’s recent lavish spending there were little to no transfer funds available in the summer, but he still managed to bring in two of Everton’s best players this season — Andros Townsend and the match winner against Arsenal, Gray. 

Townsend was a free transfer and at £1.7m Gray looks like one of the bargains of the season in any league.

Benitez’s tactics and team selection were understandably criticised during Everton’s poor run of form, but most managers would have encountered similar problems. 

Indeed, previous boss Carlo Ancelotti only won one of the five games for which Calvert-Lewin was absent and only two of nine games for which Doucoure was unavailable.

In the Arsenal game, however, Benitez’s switch to a midfield three in the second half gave Everton the platform from which to win the match.

The new manager’s links with Everton’s local rivals Liverpool were never going to help him were the team to go on a poor run, especially at home. Again, this is understandable, but Benitez has weathered this storm and has been given a fair chance by the majority of the blue half of Merseyside.

This issue was naturally heightened during the recent Merseyside derby. Though a convincing Liverpool win was predicted by many, as that result played out it still served as a wake-up call to those in charge at Everton.

It wasn’t so much the Merseyside Derby in isolation as what came before it. Even though a bad result in a game against Liverpool is amplified, the real worrying signs came in recent defeats to Brentford and Watford and to two sides demonstrating how to execute a plan that facilitates a challenge for the European places, West Ham and Wolves.

During that run, there was a feeling Everton had made yet another wrong decision in hiring Benitez, but however unwise his appointment might have felt to some fans (and, apparently, to Brands), sacking him and appointing a seventh manager since 2016 would not solve the problems.

However long Benitez lasts as Everton boss, one thing he won’t be afraid to do is to speak his mind if he feels things need to change at the club, even above him. This in itself is a positive.

He now has more control going into the January transfer window, and for the first time in a while Everton have someone taking obvious responsibility for the direction of football at the club.

It’s not an ideal situation, and to get back on track Everton may need to appoint a new director of football further down the line, who then chooses the next manager.

But for now, Benitez is in charge and is not hiding from the idea that the aim is to qualify for Europe, something that wasn’t often said out loud by recent Everton managers before himself and Ancelotti.

Everton now have the chance to allow Benitez to steady the ship. If he is unable to do so, the next move needs to be one of clearer football direction and trust in those appointed to carry out their roles.