Fulham and Aston Villa met at 12.30pm BST in a Premier League match that carried early-season weight for both clubs, with Villa starting the day fourth and Fulham 12th.
Unai Emery made four changes to Aston Villa's team, with Amadou Onana missing altogether and presumed injured. Lamare Bogarde came into midfield in his place, while Pau Torres and Lucas Digne replaced Tyrone Mings and Ian Maatsen, and Emi Buendia moved in further forward for Ross Barkley.
Marco Silva also altered Fulham after their draw at Brentford last week, bringing Sander Berge back into midfield alongside Sasa Lukic and starting Raul Jimenez ahead of Rodrigo Muniz. Samuel Chukwueze came in on the left for Alex Iwobi, who has an injured hamstring.
The game came at a time when Fulham had gone five blanks in their previous seven matches, scoring only against Burnley and Spurs in that run. Aston Villa, by contrast, had scored 12 times in the previous 16 days and had already beaten Fulham 3-1 in the reverse fixture in September.
That contrast made the meeting feel more than a routine league fixture. Villa were trying to keep pace near the top while also managing another path to the Champions League through the Europa League, and Fulham were looking for a response after another stretch that has made goals hard to find.
For Silva, the question was whether the reshuffle could finally spark a sharper attack. For Emery, the test was whether Villa's recent scoring surge could survive a rare change in midfield without Onana. The answer would shape how both sides read the run-in from here.
