Benoit Badiashile says Chelsea's players are proving that they are fully behind Mauricio Pochettino after the manager publicly complained about the speculation surrounding his future.

With the exception of a 5-0 reality check by Arsenal, Pochettino has overseen an unbeaten run since February which has left the team with a chance of securing European football. 

It has carried Chelsea to seventh in the Premier League with three games to go.

Pochettino hit out at those constantly questioning his position last week – branding such rumours 'stupid' – and Badiashile insists the squad are backing their boss entirely.

'Of course,' the 23-year-old Frenchman said after Sunday's 5-0 win over West Ham. 'The squad is behind him. You can see it from this game. We played a great game and we trust him.'

Benoit Badiashile insists all of Chelsea's squad are backing manager Mauricio Pochettino

Badiashile adds Pochettino is placing as much emphasis on Chelsea being defensively sound at one end while also trying to turn them into an attacking force at the other.

As well as the win over West Ham, they kept clean sheets in their 6-0 and 2-0 victories over Everton and Tottenham, which particularly pleased Pochettino ahead of their trip to Nottingham Forest this Saturday with fixtures to follow against Brighton and Bournemouth.

'If you want to achieve great things, you have to have a great defence,' said Badiashile, the centre back signed from Monaco for £35million. 

'You can score a lot of goals, but if you concede a lot then it is hard to win games. We have to believe in ourselves and have to keep going.'

On Marc Cucurella now acting as an inverted left back by moving into midfield, he added: 'We work on this in training and the coach has made us confident with this set-up. 

'We are trying to do it in the games and, yes, at the moment it is helping us a lot and we have to continue like this.'

Thiago Silva is set to leave this summer and Badiashile, one of those whose season has been interrupted by injuries, says he is trying to learn from him while he can.

'You already know,' he said when asked how much of a loss Silva will be this summer. 'It will be a great miss for us but we have to continue to work. That's life.

'You can see when I play with him I am more confident, but I have to try to be the same player without him because he can't be with me throughout my career.'

On Chelsea securing European football, Badiashile said they are targeting a sixth-placed finish, a position currently occupied by Newcastle above them. 

'We have to believe,' he said. 'We can do a great thing at the end of the season. We will try to be sixth but we have to first believe and see what happens. We are in a great moment.'