Hughes watched his team throw a 2-1 lead away in injury time as the Blues scored twice in as many minutes to secure the Premier League title.
Rangers survived the drop thanks to results elsewhere, and Hughes is bringing a new-look side to the Etihad Stadium with several transfer deadline signings arriving in the past week.
“I’m looking forward to seeing this team settle down and play,” said Hughes.
“We have some interesting games coming up including City, Chelsea and Spurs. Top players thrive on big challenges. Let’s see what we can do.”
Hughes admits the events of last May will probably remain with him for the remainder of his career, adding: “City beat us on the final day — you may remember!
“It was crazy the way things panned out with City winning right at the death. It would be good to think we owe them one. City have an outstanding team, but let’s have a go.
“Attacking football has been rewarded already this season, although we can’t be gung-ho. I signed a little fella called Carlos Tevez for City, but I won’t be asking him to go easy on us.
“He looks a threat again and has a sparkle in his eye. He looks settled, but we have goal-scorers too. There are similarities between what we found at QPR and when I took over at City.”
Djibril Cisse, who scored one of QPR’s goals in the 3-2 defeat at the Etihad, said: “We managed to stay up but we lost that game. We’re going to have to do better.
“But it showed that we’re capable of going there and getting a result. On our day, we can compete with anyone. We’ll see.”
New signings Esteban Granero and Julio Cesar are poised to make their QPR debuts with former City favourites Nedum Onuoha and Shaun Wright-Phillips also likely to be included in the squad.
