Amid the strangest atmosphere Anfield has known for many years, Chelsea took a tentative step into the future today. As the match ended with the London club on the brink of a third title in the Abramovich era, finally it became possible for the club to look beyond the achievements and aura of José Mourinho.

Most of the players in the line-up were part of Mourinho's side, and some of them go back as far as Claudio Ranieri's tenure, but what happens next at Stamford Bridge appears likely to become firmly identified with Carlo Ancelotti. During the summer, certain changes and additions to the squad may cement that association.

Joe Cole, unable to agree a new deal, looks likely to depart, along with Juliano Belletti and possibly Deco. Gossip suggests that if Mourinho takes over at Real Madrid in the summer, he will come calling for Frank Lampard and perhaps Ricardo Carvalho. But the presence of Frank Arnesen, the club's somewhat shadowy director of football, in the directors' box provided a reminder that finally Chelsea are ready to see some tangible reward from their expensive academy programme.

At the bottom of their lengthy first‑team squad list are the unfamiliar names of 10 young players, including the Italian forward Fabio Borini, the Dutch defender Jeffrey Bruma, the French midfielder Gael Kakuta and the extremely gifted 17-year-old Joshua McEachran, an English playmaker, who are considered ready for gradual assimiliation into the senior line-up. Their presence will reduce the average age of a group currently heavily weighted towards players in their late 20s and early 30s – although the club's medical and physiotherapy team have successfully prolonged the youth of so many of them.

If Ancelotti is clever, he will not find himself having to explain to his employer that next season is a necessary period of transition. From what we have seen, Abramovich is not much interested in such a phenomenon. He wants results. He is likely to fund at least one major purchase in the close season, possibly Sergio Agüero, Atlético Madrid's Argentinian striker, but he would like the team to reflect his investment in Arnesen's project. This will be a new challenge for Ancelotti, whose successful seven-year spell with Milan was marked by a strong preference for extending the careers of older players (such as Filippo Inzaghi and David Beckham) rather than introducing promising youngsters.

It was the old faithfuls who were entrusted with an important job yesterday, although you would never have known that the match taking place on the sacred turf of Anfield was a potential title-decider. How could it have been otherwise, given the ambivalent attitude of Liverpool's fans to the notion that a victory for their side would improve the prospects of a 19th title for Manchester United?

In a national newspaper yesterday morning one of their number wrote that anyone who wanted Liverpool to win today had no right to call himself a fan of the club. What strange times these are. Would the blessed Shankly have been willing to forfeit a home success in order to prevent the deadly rivals from overtaking his club's total of championships? The heart says that he would have gone for the victory, regardless of the cost; the head, however, has the odd doubt.

For the first half-hour the mood inside Anfield, on the pitch and in the grandstands, was that of a pre‑season friendly. The match was riddled with careless errors from players normally noted for their efficiency, in front of a near-silent crowd. Nor were the mistakes all coming from Liverpool players. Michael Ballack, playing in the holding midfield position, took 20 minutes to get his eye in and spent that time playing the sort of inaccurate short passes that would have given Claude Makelele nightmares.

The crowd was so quiet that even the biggest Liverpool mistake provoked nothing more than a sigh. It came, of course, from Steven Gerrard, that living embodiment of Liverpool's values and Shankly's legacy. Didier Drogba took full advantage, and Gerrard's blushes were only slightly spared when Lampard doubled Chelsea's lead early in the second half, this time with no obvious assistance from the home side.

And so Chelsea completed their record of success this season over their fellow members of the quartet that can no longer be called the big four: victories by 1-0 and 2-1 over Manchester United, by 3-0 and 2-0 over Arsenal, and by 2-0 twice over Liverpool. Twelve goals scored, one conceded: a remarkable achievement in this informal mini-league, although its membership will be modified next season through the relegation of a club who, as today's performance indicated, have badly lost their way. For Chelsea, by contrast, the way ahead looks like a sunlit boulevard.