Arsenal failed to win for the sixth game in a row to equal their worst streak for over 20 years as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Southampton on Saturday.

Unai Emery’s team have drawn five and lost one of their last six in all competitions, matching a run of half a dozen winless games racked up between November and December 1998.

Arsenal, who slumped to seventh in the Premier League after Saturday’s draw at the Emirates, looked to be heading for an embarrassing defeat against second-bottom Saints, themselves without a win in eight.

The visitors took the lead after eight minutes through a Danny Ings goal. The striker snuck in behind a sleeping Arsenal defence to get on the end of a Ryan Bertrand cross and tap home.

The hosts equalised soon after thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s goal but went into the final minutes of the game trailing after James Ward-Prowse scored at the second attempt after Bern Leno had beaten away his penalty.

The France striker pounced to rescue a point in the sixth minute of injury time, but it failed to do much to alleviate the gloom surrounding the club as Emery’s side racked up an unwanted record.

Their last win came during a Europa League outing against Vitoria Guimaraes in October, Nicolas Pepe scoring late to secure a 3-2 victory.

Arsene Wenger’s team were league champions when they went six without a win in the autumn of 1998, losing to Wimbledon and Aston Villa in the league and crashing out of the Champions League and League Cup to RC Lens and Chelsea respectively.

They recovered to win 15 of their next 19 in the league to come within a point of retaining their title, falling short in a 1-0 defeat to Leeds on the season’s penultimate day to finish runners-up to Manchester United.

There seems to be little hope of Emery’s class of 2019 repeating the trick, with Arsenal now slumped in midtable and trailing leaders Liverpool by 19 points.

More alarmingly for Gunners fans, the team are seven points adrift in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League, trailing fourth-place Manchester City with more than a third of the season gone.