Injuries might have restricted the defender’s impact in a Palace shirt up to this point, but imposing performances against Manchester and Newcastle United at Selhurst suggest Richards is keen to make up for lost time.
Richards: I’ve had a good week!
Chris Richards can look back proudly on a week in which the 22-year-old has made his first Premier League start and kept his first Premier League clean sheet.
He told Palace TV: “It feels good to be able to play in front of the fans and to play a few 90s [minuets]. I think I’ve had a good week!
“We knew it [Newcastle] wasn’t going to be an easy game to come into, especially with how they’re doing this season. We just wanted to do our part defensively and hope that we got lucky, or we had that one strike to go in on the offensive side.
“Overall, we played a good game. Of course, being nit-picky, we want to score more goals, but that’ll come. As long as we’re doing our job defensively, we know that the goals are probably going to come from our guys.”
Alabama-born Richards will have been well aware of the Palace supporters’ proud presence at the Premier League Mornings Live event on Saturday.
The United States defender smiled: “Orlando’s the one place where me and my family go on holiday pretty often!
“Thanks for supporting guys – hope you’re all having fun in Orlando!”