Finally, the unsung hero stepped out from the shadows of the bodies in midfield and took centre stage himself. Saturday afternoon at Selhurst Park belonged to Will Hughes.
Assisting both of Crystal Palace’s goals as they earned a well-deserved 2-2 draw with Manchester City put Hughes in the limelight in a way he seldom is.
While Jean-Philippe Mateta deserves an honourable mention, one would be hard pushed to name a Palace player who has come on more under Oliver Glasner than Hughes.
In early May, Hughes reached 31 appearances for the 2023-24 season and that triggered an automatic one-year extension in his contract, securing his Palace future until summer 2025.
If his deal was not structured in such a way, Glasner would surely have been convincing the midfielder to stay anyway.
The first pass he threaded through to Daniel Munoz for the Colombian’s opener on Saturday was one of the passes of the Premier League season to date.
That, and the corner delivery which set up Maxence Lacroix for the second, complemented an otherwise typically workmanlike display from Hughes.
Hughes has faced a difficult task. Inevitably, so much of attention in Palace’s midfield in 2024 has been on Adam Wharton, the 20-year-old who joined in January and performed so well that he went on to earn himself a place in the England squad for Euro 2024.
Wharton is yet to return having undergone planned surgery on a lingering groin surgery in early November. In his absence, attention has been on new signings such as Lacroix and Ismaila Sarr, the emergence of youngster Justin Devenny, and the slight decline in Eberechi Eze’s level of performance.
Cheick Doucoure has also commanded attention as he works his way back up to full fitness following an injury-plagued 12 months.
Doucoure was once tracked by Paris Saint-Germain and wanted by Liverpool. He, like Wharton, has the sort of star power and lofty potential that simply does not apply to Hughes, in part because Hughes is approaching his 30th birthday.
But when injuries have forced Glasner’s hand, last season and this, Hughes has shown he still covers as much ground as he ever did. He remains a diligent midfield player, nipping in, pinching the ball, and keeping Palace ticking over with responsible passing.
“Very positive,” Glasner said of his display against City. “We tried to find areas we could have the advantage. That’s not always easy against City! We knew we could play high intensity.”
With Hughes in his team, he certainly could.
In a league where teams increasingly take punts on young, foreign imports yet to prove themselves in England, Hughes has continued to fly under the radar, delivering consistently bustling performances in the middle of the park for Derby County, Watford, and now Palace for well over a decade. He deserves his flowers.
