The manager has changed half the side from last season, with five of his new boys - Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott, Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor - in action at Crystal Palace.
But while conventional wisdom expects a settling-in period for such a radical turnover to bear fruit, City have snapped up four wins on the spin including the friendly at Barcelona.
Blues boss Hughes, looking for a fifth successive win and clean sheet at Portsmouth on Sunday, said: “The process is accelerated if you’ve got top quality players.
“When a group comes together and the level of technical ability within the group is at different levels, then maybe it’s difficult.
“But we’re talking about high-quality football players who have a real understanding of how the game is played. They are reacting off each other, enjoying playing together and showing what they can do. It makes the process easier.
“We’ve made huge changes in terms of personnel but there is a real focus in the group - everybody is excited and wants to get out there. As a consequence we’re playing some good stuff.”
Toure skippered the side to Carling Cup victory at Palace on Thursday night in the absence of Richard Dunne, but the former Arsenal centre-half has rivals for the armband.
Hughes said: “Kolo has the great qualities that lend themselves to being captain, but I’ve a lot of captains - think of Gareth Barry, and Joleon Lescott views himself as a guy that can captain Manchester City.
“Whoever gets the armband long term will know that they have the back-up from the guys in the dressing-room because we’ve got a very strong squad mentally now. That’s the dynamic I wanted to change.”
