Two of European football’s top five league marksmen stand in front of Saints and a place in the history books this weekend.

Liverpool pair Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge have hammered 41 Premier League goals between them this season – three more than Saints have managed overall.

With 23 goals from just 22 starts, Suarez is the leading goalscorer among Europe’s top five major elite leagues – one ahead of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

England international Sturridge is also averaging more than a goal a start, with 18 strikes from just 17 starts plus two more off the bench.

If you don’t include penalties, Suarez and Sturridge are the two leading goalscorers in the top five European leagues.

Sturridge arrives at St Mary’s for the Sky televised Saturday tea-time encounter chasing a place in the record books. He has scored in each of his last eight league games and has the record of ten – by Ruud van Nistelrooy – firmly in his sights. But Mauricio Pochettino is also on the brink of creating his own entry in the Saints’ record books.

They are chasing a third successive top flight win against the former kings of Europe for the first time ever.

Saints have only once before managed three league wins on the spin against the Merseysiders – and they came way back in the early 1960s when the sides were in the old Division 2.

Times are very different now with Liverpool having an outside chance of the Premier League title, but facing a nemesis in the shape of Saints.

Pochetinno, right, has guided Saints to two wins from two against Liverpool – 3-1 at St Mary’s last March and 1-0 at Anfield early in this campaign.

Remarkably, that victory at Anfield was the first league defeat Liverpool had suffered since the previous Saints win in March.

It remains the only time Liverpool have failed to score at home in the league this season, and is their only defeat at Anfield.

Suarez didn’t play in that game as he was still serving a massive suspension carried over from 2012/13 for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.