In July last year Sir Alex Ferguson predicted that Chelsea were a team who had “plateaued”. But that was in the good old days.

Ferguson spoke before the Arabs had transformed our perception of what it is to be a big spender and before the credit crunch had done its worst to Roman Abramovich’s fortune. The Manchester United manager also predicted a levelling out, without factoring in that Didier Drogba, the player on whom Chelsea’s entire single-striker strategy of the past five years has been built, would go into a season-long sulk.

A plateau is what Chelsea long for because that would mean finishing second, as they did behind United last season. And there is scant chance of that.

Chelsea rank as a team in decline – a selling club, even, on the evidence of a transfer window in which Wayne Bridge and Carlo Cudicini have departed with no purchases being made – and the critical question, unlikely to be answered until the summer, is how they respond. Or, rather, how much money they spend. The signs are not promising.

Having been beaten once to Robinho’s signature in August, Chelsea tried to lure the Brazilian last month, but this was no multimillion-pound raid on Manchester City. Various swap deals are thought to have been mooted through agents, including permutations of Florent Malouda, Salomon Kalou and Alex or Drogba heading the other way in exchange.

The club that Luiz Felipe Scolari thought he was joining would never have missed out on Robinho in the first place.

Commendably, Scolari has declined to paraphrase Kevin Keegan and claim that Chelsea are not like they showed him in the brochure. Perhaps he is paid enough to be diplomatic. Maybe he is sufficiently self-critical to know that he is falling short.

Either way, all the promise of autumn, when Nicolas Anelka was streaking ahead as the Barclays Premier League’s top scorer and Deco looked an inspired signing, was blown away in the arctic wind and the snow flurries at Anfield yesterday – just as it had been in the humiliating 3-0 defeat by United at Old Trafford less than a month ago. Chelsea were never going to take the game to Liverpool, but a tally of three shots to 20, the first of those after 75 minutes, told of a disjointed team even before Frank Lampard was harshly sent off.

Despite all the courageous shot-blocking by Alex and John Terry, there remain those moments of defensive panic that were unthinkable under José Mourinho. Did Petr Cech start these jitters or did he catch them from his defence? Cech is not the goalkeeper he was.

Chelsea have now played five matches against United, Arsenal and Liverpool this season and taken a solitary point, at home to United. If nothing else, this record in the biggest games does not point towards a redemptive run in the Champions League.

They were a bedraggled bunch by the end yesterday. Terry walked over to applaud the travelling fans, but when he turned to check that his teammates were behind him, all but a few had already run off. Drogba was so half-hearted that he should not have bothered coming on at all, while Malouda and Kalou were insipid on the flanks. In the short-term, they will be grateful simply to overcome Watford in the FA Cup when they will be without Terry who is suspended, and perhaps Lampard unless his red card is rescinded.

Champions League finalists as recently as May, and eagerly awaiting the return of Michael Essien, Chelsea can come again. But having built the regime on one man’s cash, they wait, palms outstretched, for another hand-out, which they fear will not come.