Cole came off the bench and lashed in a deflected shot with ten minutes to go after it looked as though the visitors would be lucky to escape with a point.
The pre-match build-up inevitably focused on Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard.
The inspirational midfield star eventually resisted the temptation of a summer switch to Stamford Bridge and lined up to do battle with his England colleague Frank Lampard.
In the absence of Milan Baros, who was still struggling with a hamstring injury, it was Gerrard who took on the role of driving Liverpool forward - just behind in-form Frenchman Florent Sinama Pongolle.
Table-topping Chelsea brought a near full strength side to Anfield, with only England full-back Wayne Bridge missing through injury.
The confident hosts settled far more quickly than the visitors with Pongolle giving William Gallas a rough ride early on.
"You'll never play for Chelsea" mocked the travelling London fans as Gerrard wastefully curled a dangerous free-kick high and wide of Petr Cech's goal.
Liverpool continued to pen back the visitors as the decibel level on The Kop rose considerably from the early mumblings.
On 15minutes Djimi Traore atoned for error by spectacularly winning the ball back and surging on to Pongolle's return pass, but he slid his shot directly at Cech. A great chance to break the deadlock, wasted.
Suddenly the visitors sprung into life as Arjen Robben beat the offside trap to run clear on the Liverpool goal, but the Dutchman delayed his shot and Jerzy Dudek saved well.
Less than a minute later Liverpool countered and a centre from John Arne Riise evaded Xabi Alonso by inches. Game on.
The Reds continued to press with the skipper outshining his England counterpart Lampard, who appeared off the pace and was booked for a cynical foul on Alonso.
Alonso was forced off on 28 minutes after failing to recover from a knock to his left ankle. Former Real Madrid star Antonio Nunez took his place. It was confirmed at half-time that Alonso had suffered a broken right ankle.
A slip from Sami Hyypia then let Tiago in, but the Portuguese star shot weakly at Dudek, who gathered easily.
Liverpool were furious when a penalty appeal was turned down after Tiago appeared to handle Gerrard's cross before Cech was forced into a point-blank save from Hyypia's ricochet.
Chelsea were inches away from a surprise lead early in the second period as Damien Duff's cross evaded the sliding Eidur Gudjohnson by a matter of inches.
After a scrappy start to the second half, some fine play from Gerrard set up Luis Garcia, who somewhat true to form got underneath the shot and blasted over.
Gerrard himself then fired a shot wide as scoring opportunities became few and far between.
But up popped Cole to add the final touch the game had been missing to maintain the Blues' Premiership title charge.
Man of the Match: Steven Gerrard - The Reds skipper gave his all to try and thwart the visitors and didn't deserve to end up on the losing side.