After the Whistle sat there on Saturday, surveying the beauty of a big win after a long early morning journey and wondering about the rainbow over Teesside throughout the game despite no rain, when we remembered this was the biggest away win since Hasselbaink, Crespo, Duff and some improving young midfielder called Lampard hammered five goals past Wolves.
That was back in the first season after Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea, leading to thoughts about the club's record away from Stamford Bridge during the five years since.
Remember when a game at Middlesbrough was approached with far more hope than expectation that the team would triumph as 68 years passed without a win there? That was until unlikely goalscorer Bernard Lambourde broke the spell back in 1999.
As the ball on Saturday was patiently worked back towards our penalty area from a throw-on, Mikel on the ball three times before Belletti hit the accelerator with his pass out to Bridge to cross for the opener, the days when Chelsea's play would look inhibited in the north-east seemed a long time ago.
The first three goals all originated from Chelsea throw-ins, the ball worked past Middlesbrough players without a challenge. At the other end, Carlo Cudicini on his return was called upon to save just one shot on-target.
If the team can win at Hull and Blackburn in our next two league away games, and no-one is saying that will be easy, it would equal both the Chelsea, and overall Premier League record of nine successive away league wins - matching the run in the second half of José Mourinho's first season here.
In the Abramovich era to-date, spanning four managers, Chelsea have taken a massive 72 per cent of the Premier League points available on the road. That's compared with 76 per cent of the points taken home and away combined.
In the same period, Man United's haul away from Old Trafford has been 67 per cent, Arsenal 54 per cent and Liverpool on their travels 44 per cent.
You won't find any subterranean homesick Blues when the Chelsea team rolls into town.
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Speaking as we are about away wins, it was good to see José Mourinho's Inter soften Roma up for their visit to London this week. Our former manager's team fell just one goal short of matching Chelsea at the weekend, winning 4-0 in the Italian capital on Sunday night.
That's four domestic defeats in the last six for Roma, whose victory in Bordeaux three weeks' ago was their only away success this season in the Champions League and Serie A combined.
After the Whistle decided to cast an eye over our next opponents during their Sunday defeat and watched Italian internationals Di Rossi and Aquilani find life tough against former Portsmouth man Sulley Muntari in the midfield of the Stadio Olimpico pitch.
Three of Inter's goals were cracking finishes from outside the box so the home side will feel on another day the score would have been closer.
Former Chelsea defender Christian Panucci was suspended but he will be available on Wednesday. Roma's chief centurion, Francesco Totti, made his first start in six months following a cruciate injury and has declared himself ready to play at Stamford Bridge.
For the record, looking at our other Champions League group opponents at the weekend, Bordeaux's form continues to improve with a third win in four league matches. France international Yoann Gourcuff and David Bellion scored in a 2-1 home win over Toulouse to put their side fourth in the league.
Cluj were 1-0 home winners over Romanian league leaders Dinamo Bucharest and are fifth, Dan Petrescu's Unirea Urziceni still a close second, just one point behind Dinamo.
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There was praise for the entertainment Chelsea had given among the northern-based reporters in the press box at the Riverside. Among them was Boro-supporting Jeff Winter, the refereeing legend and top media personality as his website describes him, who must have been pleased to see the game pass with no controversial moments involving the match officials.
It was The Sunday Times's David Walsh, who last spoke to After the Whistle a year ago following a 6-0 win over Man City, who was prepared to make a prediction.
'I believe it will be a two-horse race,' he said, 'and the difficulty for Chelsea is going to be Man United.
'You can argue which has the better squad, everyone will have a different view but I sense Chelsea are very up for this Premier League battle. They feel Man United got one last year that Chelsea shouldn't have let them have.
'Chelsea have evolved subtly under Scolari and Frank Lampard's form is just fantastic. He is only now getting the credit he should always have had.
'The fringe players came in and had good matches but games like this can momentarily confuse you how good you are. Chelsea were not as good as the papers will say they are as Middlesbrough were dead sheep and you can roll dead sheep all day. But it is going to be a fantastic battle for the league title.'
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Juliano Belletti's early season entry for Chelsea Goal of the Season was enough for last year's winner to have his name sung by the Chelsea away following at Middlesbrough - to the riff from The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army'- now assimilated as a new football anthem since it was played in the stadia at Euro 2008.
However After The Whistle's stand out crowd moment on Saturday came 72 minutes into the game.
Faced with the prospect of Deco introduced to take on a team already five-goals down, it was noticeable how a healthy number of Middlesbrough fans kicked against recent trends and applauded Frank Lampard from the pitch.
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