Rooney's VAR fury after Palace's winner

Oliver Glasner's side picked up a much-needed three points, with the win lifting them back into the top half of a congested table. Palace went in front through a goal that was initially flagged, checked, and then given by VAR, a decision that would dominate the post-match conversation far more than anything that happened in the other 89 minutes.

The flashpoint

Details of exactly what the officials were reviewing weren't spelled out in the broadcast breakdown, but the outcome was clear enough: the goal stood, Palace led, and Forest were left fuming on the touchline. Rooney wasn't having any of it when the cameras turned to him in the studio.

"Call it a day with VAR," Rooney said on Match of the Day, according to BBC Sport, arguing the officials had got the call wrong and that the system in its current form is doing more harm than good.

Rooney's verdict carries weight

This isn't some anonymous pundit letting off steam. Rooney is one of the most recognisable voices in English football, a former England captain whose opinions get amplified the second he says them on the BBC's flagship show. When he says scrap it rather than tweak it, that lands differently than the usual grumbling about slow replays and marginal offsides.

The timing matters too. VAR has spent years lurching from one credibility crisis to the next in the Premier League, and every fresh controversy reopens the same argument about whether the technology is making the game fairer or just making it feel more remote. Rooney putting his name to the most extreme version of that complaint, abolish it rather than fix it, gives the debate another push just as fans were starting to tune out the usual noise.

Where this leaves Palace

None of the controversy changes the result. Palace took the three points and the win under Glasner. Forest, by contrast, leave with nothing and a legitimate grievance to air, even if the specifics of the review itself remain the part everyone's still arguing about on social media rather than agreeing on.

Rooney's "call it a day" line is already the clip doing the rounds, and BBC Sport has it on record.