These are still early days but the season is already shaping up to be a slog for Cardiff City. Burnley at home felt like a welcome fixture on the face of it, especially on the back of conceding 12 goals against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, but there is no respite for Neil Warnock’s team, who fell to a fourth successive defeat that leaves them joint bottom of the Premier League.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson did the damage, scoring Burnley’s first and setting up the winner for Sam Vokes on a day when Cardiff were entitled to feel the very least they deserved was a point. That they failed to pick up anything says much about their shortcomings at both ends of the pitch. Toothless up front and nowhere near good enough defensively, Cardiff were picked off by a Burnley side who scored from their only two attempts on target.

The bigger picture is worrying for Cardiff. They have now failed to win in eight games in all competitions this season – the first time that has happened since the 1964-65 campaign – and it is hard to see things improving for Warnock and his players any time soon. They travel to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and the away trip after that is Liverpool.

“It’s a cruel game sometimes,” Warnock said. “But I can’t fault the effort. I’m disappointed to concede from the only two opportunities that they got. At the level we’re talking about you shouldn’t concede goals like that. I thought it epitomised the whole game that Joe Hart got man of the match. It’s a tough defeat to take.”

Hart was certainly impressive in goal and made a particularly important save in the context of the game when he tipped Josh Murphy’s curling shot over the bar.

Two minutes later Burnley went up the other end and scored when Vokes, who was making his 100th Premier League appearance, stooped to head in Gudmundsson’s cross.

It was a goal that came against the run of play – all the momentum was with Cardiff after Murphy registered his first goal for the club on the hour with a superb side-foot finish from Bruno Ecuele Manga’s cut-back – and exposed the defensive weaknesses that left Warnock so frustrated. Sean Morrison, the Cardiff centre-half, allowed Gudmundsson to run in behind him and Vokes made the most of the generous space he was afforded in the penalty area.

Burnley’s opening goal was a similar story. Cardiff were caught sleeping when Charlie Taylor took a throw-in quickly, Ashley Westwood stood up a cross at the far post and Gudmundsson, climbing above Greg Cunningham, squeezed his header inside Neil Etheridge’s near post via a touch off the goalkeeper’s left boot.

“We’ve been beaten by two lapses of concentration,” said Warnock, who also felt Cardiff should have been awarded “a clear penalty” for handball when Callum Paterson’s shot was blocked.

Burnley had plenty of problems of their own until recently but back-to-back victories have lifted them to 12th place. In truth they looked way off the pace here for long periods and would have gone behind in the first half but for a fine one-handed stop from Hart, who kept out Kenneth Zohore’s stabbed left-footed shot.

Sean Dyche, however, took encouragement from “a resolute performance” and the way Burnley defended so doggedly, especially after losing James Tarkowski to a groin injury in the first half. “It’s very difficult coming here,” Burnley’s manager said. “They play on the front foot and put balls towards the box from virtually everywhere.”