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Kevin Phillips says Sunderland lacked creativity in draw with Swansea

Image: Fletcher: off target against Swansea

Sunderland lacked a creative spark in their lacklustre goalless draw with Swansea, Kevin Phillips told Sky Sports.

Aston Villa 1-2 Newcastle

PHIL THOMPSON: It's hard to say it but Paul Lambert got it totally wrong tactically. He played a flat back five against one striker (Papiss Cisse); Matthew Lowton and Joe Bennett were playing as full-backs, not wing-backs, and didn't know when to push on and support their forward players, so there was nothing in these wide areas - and it stayed like that for the whole of the first half and Villa ended it 2-0 down. Gabriel Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann came on in the second half and they went 4-3-3, pinned Newcastle back and deserved a draw as they were so dominant. The fans can be proud of their second-half display but on this evidence I cannot see Villa staying up.

QPR 0-0 Man City

CHARLIE NICHOLAS: QPR didn't show a lot going forward and rode their luck a bit, but they defended doggedly and Harry Redknapp made three changes late on to stop Man City's momentum. This is a bonus for Harry because after the weekend defeat (to MK Dons in the FA Cup) you wondered whether things would blow up. It was a fascinating game to watch but it was a disappointing show again for City; Sergio Aguero was starry at times and they had five or 10-minute spells - but they didn't look like champions.

STOKE 2-2 Wigan

TONY COTTEE: Wigan played well in the second half to fight back from 2-0 down at Stoke, which is never an easy place to go, and scored two really good goals through James McArthur and Franco Di Santo, so Roberto Martinez, who had a beaming smile in the post-match interview, will be really pleased. His side are out of the bottom three now and that will help them psychologically and I think they are good enough to stay up if they play like they did in the second period of this game. They showed at the end of last season that they are capable of going on a run and, eventually, they should be alright.

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