This article is part of Football FanCast's In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets...

When Crystal Palace saw Luka Milivojevic enter the book in the 93rd minute of their 2-0 win over Norwich, the prospect of having to face West Ham without their captain became reality.

The Serbian international is one of the first names on Roy Hodgson's teamsheet - Milivojevic played every minute of the 2018/19 Premier League campaign - while he also finished as the Eagles' top scorer with 12 goals last term.

Palace would've been well within their rights to be concerned about his absence against the Hammers.

However, one man stepped up to deliver an excellent performance on what was his first Premier League start for the south Londoners.

James McCarthy.

Lining up alongside his former Hamilton and Wigan midfield partner James McArthur, the Republic of Ireland international looked at ease in the middle of the park.

The 28-year-old completed 84.6% of his 39 passes, buzzing about the midfield to some effect.

McCarthy stung the palms of Roberto with a fierce first-half drive from long range - in what was his only shot on target - while also completing two tackles as Palace beat West Ham thanks to Jordan Ayew's 87th minute winner.

If the former Everton man had cost £5m, £8m or even £10m upon his arrival back in the summer, you would be hard pushed to complain about such a fee on the basis of his composed performance at the London Stadium.

However, quite astonishingly in this day and age, Palace managed to bring the energetic midfielder to Selhurst Park for under £1m, as The Athletic's Dominic Fifield outlines here.

"McCarthy, once the second-most expensive signing in Everton’s history, would cost less than £1 million."

It must be extremely reassuring for Hodgson and, presumably, the majority of the Selhurst Park faithful to know that if a key player such as Milivojevic is ever unavailable again for whatever reason, then there is a more than capable pair of hands in McCarthy to step in and do the business.