AC Milan vs. Manchester City: 5 Things We Learned

Manchester City followed up a series of drab friendlies in South Africa and Hong Kong with a wild affair against A.C. Milan in the Audi Cup in Munich.

Any City fans who wondered when new manager Manuel Pellegrini would loose his hounds needed wait no longer.

At one point, City led the quality Italian side by five (FIVE!) goals. A few careless concessions made the score line a bit more flattering to A.C. Milan, but 5-3 is a fairly decisive victory under any circumstances.

Here are a few takeaways from a pretty entertaining run, especially for Sky Blues fans.

Edin Dzeko Is Playing for Keeps

Granted, Edin Dzeko's two goals against A.C. Milan came after three of his teammates had already scored.

Here's the thing, though: his two goals ended up being the difference in the match, as City coughed up more than half their 5-0 lead by the end of the opening 45 minutes.

City then held on through a goalless second half to prevail.

Dzeko's brace means that if new manager Pellegrini wants to feature the likes of Stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Negredo over the big Bosnian, he will need a pretty good reason.

Dzeko scored the only goal in City's 1-0 victory over Sunderland in Hong Kong over the weekend, and he is a striker in form as the beginning of the Premier League season looms.

Manchester City Will Score Goals in Bunches Under Manuel Pellegrini

Once upon a time in Manchester City, an early goal meant watching Roberto Mancini immediately push everyone but perhaps Sergio Aguero or the likes of Carlos Tevez back behind the ball.

Mancini's idea of success was basically dozens and dozens of tense 1-0 victories.

Well, you can forget about that at City with Pellegrini in charge.

City scored early, and then they scored again. And again.

Then Dzeko popped in two more, and it was 5-0 City with A.C. Milan dazed and confused, per Chris Davie of Goal.com.

Count on seeing more of this under Pellegrini, i.e., goals followed by redoubled efforts for more goals.

It could be a pretty wild season for the Sky Blues.

Manchester City Might Concede Goals in Bunches Under Manuel Pellegrini

Manchester City's 5-3 win over A.C. Milan at the Audi Cup in Munich featured a very strange pattern of action.

City scored five times before Milan got on the board, with all five goals coming in the first half.

Then City was punctured three times in the span of seven minutes right before the interval, per ESPN.com.

What does it mean? Well, it is always a bit difficult to project a season's probabilities from one preseason friendly match.

Still, none of the sides City faced in South Africa or Hong Kong in their prior friendly appearances boasted talent anything like what A.C. Milan put on the pitch.

Even without Mario Balotelli, scratched from this match Tuesday, A.C. Milan had former City transfer target Stephan El Shaarawy wreaking his trademark havoc.

Faced with a credible scoring punch for the first time this preseason, City gave up three goals in seven minutes.

Thankfully, they had put up a five spot before that went on.

Still, it suggests that Pellegrini's attacking, aggressive style is going to produce many scoring chances for City and for their opponents.

David Silva Is Ready to Go

Manchester City have more than a sufficient number of scoring options. David Silva is not thought of as one of the Sky Blues' real goal threats.

Silva's job is to create goals. He slashes through the midfield, weights perfect passes to streaking strikers, draws extra attention outside the box and finds the open man.

Silva has not played much this preseason, and so there had to be some curiosity as to how he would fit in Pellegrini's scheme.

You can put any questions flat to rest.

Silva scored first in City's 5-3 triumph over A.C. Milan in Munich, tallying just a few minutes into the contest, per The Mirror.

Looks like Silva will fit right in with Pellegrini's plans.

Aleksandar Kolarov and Micah Richards Might Not Be Ready to Leave Just Yet

Both Micah Richards and Aleksandar Kolarov have recently been rumored to be looking for a way out of Manchester, per Goal.com.

These two players are worried (understandably) about playing time, as City have significant depth on both the back line and in the midfield.

Well, if these two are going to leave, they want to let City know what they are losing, and they want other clubs to know what they might gain.

Both Kolarov and Richards scored in City's 5-3 win over A.C. Milan in the Audi Cup in Munich.

Good on them.