Day one of a new season may not be the time to make definitive judgements, but Chelsea's relentless pace over the past two campaigns has completely reshaped the nature of the Premiership title race and those who wish to reach out for the ultimate prize are now required to hit the ground running.
Liverpool simply hit the wall after a controversial 68th-minute penalty gave them the platform to go on and win the game. And having had an outstanding prep race against Chelsea in the Community Shield last Sunday, there was no excuse for Liverpool failing to create even a worthwhile chance in the final 20 minutes.
One thing is certain: after all the summer signings, all the millions spent, Liverpool are still pathologically reliant on the energy and leadership of captain Steven Gerrard who, inevitably, was the man who drew the challenge from Chris Morgan that referee Rob Styles deemed to be a penalty offence.
Proving that he is also still His Master's Voice, he came across to the bench on several occasions to receive instructions from manager Rafael Benitez.
Talking of His Master's Voice, Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock showed you can take the manager off the touchline but you cannot take the touchline rant out of the manager. Banned from pitchside because of offences last season, he returned from the stands to say: "There was no way that was ever a penalty. The referee gave them everything, he gave them offside decisions and he gave them both advantage and the penalty.
"If it was a penalty, Morgan should have been given a second booking and been sent off. But I don't want you guys to talk about the penalty. I want you to talk about my team and how magnificent they were." In the Premiership, says Warnock, his team will have to combat superior skills with more acute tactics and we witnessed that in the deployment of Chris Armstrong, often aided and abetted by the outstanding Michael Tongue, to deny Momo Sissoko the time and space in which to dominate midfield. Tongue also produced a splendid dribble that alarmed Liverpool, while Armstrong swerved past both Jamie Carragher and Gerrard in another audacious move.
Sheffield United were winning their battles and the ball all over the pitch, urged on by a passionate crowd in their first Premiership match for 12 years. Yet there was still a sense that Liverpool were just biding their time, waiting to spring an ambush in the shape of a single goalscoring breakaway.
It looked to have arrived when John Arne Riise escaped down the left, but he collided with onrushing goalkeeper Paddy Kenny as he was about to cross the ball and was carried off with an ankle injury. Within 10 minutes Carragher had also succumbed to a similar injury, sustained in an earlier collision with Rob Hulse.
Hulse, 26, who thought he had lost his chance of Premiership football this season after playing in the losing Leeds side in last season's Championship play-off final, looks a snip at £2 million, worrying Liverpool's defenders for most of the game and slipping his markers to score with a header from David Unsworth's free kick in the opening minute of the second half.
Gerrard inspired Liverpool's comeback and won the penalty after playing a one-two with Robbie Fowler. The latter then scooped the ball into the corner, high enough to elude Kenny even had he guessed right. England penalty takers, please note.
Benitez agreed with his counterpart Warnock on just one thing. Morgan, as the last defender, should have been sent off. But Benitez added: "It was a clear penalty. Steve felt there was contact and that halted his run." Styles also thought there was contact but said afterwards: "Even if there wasn't, in the laws of the game, intent to take a player out is also a red card offence. But Gerrard clearly lost his balance because of the challenge."
Afterwards he and his team lost their way and now face a tiring trip to Kiev for the second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday, with neither Carragher nor Riise likely to play. As Liverpool headed for their coach, Warnock was off to have a friendly word, or so he said, with Styles, hoping not to talk himself into another touchline ban.